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THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS 

WITHIN THE PRESENT LIMITS 
OF THE UNITED STATES 

FLORIDA 

1562-1574 



BY 

WOODBURY LOWERY 



WITH MAPS 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Xibc IRnichecbocher press 

1905 



El IS 3 



!TPE library of 
I QONGRcSS 

Two OoDies ^ecoiveci 

SEP. 22 1905 

Oopyrwnt tntry 
COPY A. 



Copyright, 1905 

BY 

WOODBURY LOWERY 



Ube ftnicherbocher press, Dew Jgotft 



TO MY DEAR SISTER 



PREFACE 

THE principal sources for the history of Pedro Men6n- 
dez de Aviles and his conquest of Florida are: i. A 
collection of letters written by and to him, memorials, 
royal cedulas and patents, instructions, relations, and 
other documents covering the period from 1555 to 1574, 
but chiefly relating to the conquest of Florida. This 
collection is published in E. Ruidiaz y Caravia, La Florida 
sii Conquista y Colonizacion por Pedro Mene'ndez de Aviles, 
Madrid, 1893, volume ii. 2. Memorial que hizo el 
Doctor Gonzalo Solis de Meras de todas las jornadas 
y sucesos del Adelantado Pedro Men^ndez de Aviles, su 
cunado, y de la Conquista de la Florida y Justicia que hizo 
n Juan Rihao y otros franceses. This forms volume i. of 
tliL .-.. r'wrida of Ruidiaz. 3. Vida y hechos de Pero 
Menendez de Auiles, Cauallero de la Hordem de Sanctiago, 
Adelantado de la Florida: Do largamente se tratan las 
Conquistas y Poblaciones de la Prouincia de la Florida, y 
como fueron libradas de los Luteranos que dellas se auian 
apoderado. Compuesta por el maestro barrientos, Catre- 
datico de salamanca. This work is contained in Dos 
A ntiguas Relaciones de la Florida publicalas por primer a 
vez Genaro Garcia, Mexico, 1902, pp. 1-152. 4. The 
account contained in the Ensayo Cronologico para la His- 
toria General de la Florida, por Don Gabriel de Cardenas 
z Cano (anagram for Don Andreas Gonzales Barcia), 
Madrid, 1723, pp. 36-151. 

The second volume of Ruidiaz's La Floridd, containing 
the Aviles correspondence, is published as an appendix to 



VI 



Preface 



the Memorial of Merds in the first volume. In place of 
following a chronological arrangement the editor has 
grouped his material under the headings of "Letters of 
P. Men^ndez de Avil6s." "Letters addressed to Pedro 
Men^ndez de Aviles," "Memorials of Pedro Menendez 
de Aviles," "Royal C^dulas," "Royal Patents," "In- 
structions," "Relations," "Illness Testaments and Act 
of Translation of the Body of Pedro Menendez," "Vari- 
ous Documents, ' ' etc. This artificial grouping has caused 
him to overlook certain obviously erroneous dates given 
in the titles of some of the documents and to leave un- 
solved the conflicting statements of Barcia, Meras, and 
Vigil as to the dates of the second and third voyages of 
Aviles to the Indies, to which a more logical arrangement 
would have directed his attention. 

In justice to Sr. Ruidiaz it should be stated that the 
work is said to have been prepared hurriedly in anticipa- 
tion of his admission into the Royal Academy of History, 
and although his introductory matter exhibits some traces 
of this haste, the collection is of primary importance to 
the historian and bears witness to an extended and pains- 
taking investigation among the Spanish archives. With 
the exception of six documents,' which are reprinted 
from other collections, and seven letters of Aviles, which 

' These are : 

Real Cedula, March 22, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida^ tomo ii., p. 351 ; 
Buckingham Smith, Coleccidn de varios Documentos para la Historia de la 
Florida, tomo i., p. 13. Mendoza's " Relacion" in Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., 
p. 431 ; Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo iii., p. 441. Letter of Toral, April 
5, 1567, Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 295 ; Cartas de Indias, p. 238. Van- 
dera's " Relacion," January 23, 1569 ; Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii,, p. 481 ; Col. 
Doc. Flo., tomo i., p. 15 ; Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo iv., p. 560; B. 
F. French, Hist, Col. Louisiana and Florida, 2d series, " Historical 
Memoirs and Narratives," p. 2S9. " Disposicion de quatro fuertes que ha 
de haber en la Florida," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 566, where it is 
wrongly dated 1566; Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo xiii., p. 307, dated 
1569. " Diligencias hechas en Sevilla con motivo de la venida de Esteban 
de las Alas de la Florida," Ruidiaz, ibid,, tomo ii., p. 568 ; Col. Doc. In- 
edit. Indias, tomo xiii., p. 309. 



Preface vii 

are extant in an English translation, the volume consists 
entirely of material then for the first time published. 

Barrientos finished his account in December, 1568.* 
He was professor of Latin in the University of Salamanca, 
and the little that is known of him is given by Garcia in 
the preface to the above-mentioned work. Barrientos 
derived the material for his history from at least three in- 
dependent sources. On p. 147 he relates that Avil^s on 
his return from Florida to Spain in 1567, "presented this 
relation to the King," a statement which admits of the 
inference that Barrientos reproduced either in whole or in 
part the original relation written by Avil^s himself. In 
addition to this he has apparently consulted parts of the 
Avil^s correspondence" and finally he mentions several 
incidents which are omitted by Meras and Barcia. 

The Memorial of Meras terminates with the return of 
Aviles to Spain in 1567 and his arrival at Court. Ruidiaz 
in his introductory remarks ascribes no date to the work. 
The year "1565" appears on the title-page which pre- 
cedes the Memorial. Barcia says ' the history was written 
at the time. Meras, who was the brother-in-law of Aviles, 
accompanied him to Florida, and both Barcia and Ruidiaz 
are under the impression that he went in the capacity of 
historian to the expedition. It is to be noted, however, 
that Meras relates various occurrence^ at which he was 
not present, and which he must have learned either from 
an eye-witness or from a document. The manuscript 
published by Ruidiaz is torn and illegible in several 
places. As the Memorial is silent upon a variety of sub- 
jects in the career of Aviles which are related by Barcia, 
the editor has supplied the omission by interpolating into 
the body of the text extensive extracts from the Ensayo 

' Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 149. 

^ Ibid., p, 106, lines 2-5 from the bottom of the page, which are found 
in the letter of Aviles of October 15, 1565, in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
ii., p. 94. 

^Ensayo Cronologico, p. 90. 



Vlll 



preface 



for the purpose of presenting a more detailed and con- 
secutive narrative, indicating the interpolations by refer- 
ence to foot-notes.' There is nothing to indicate that 
Merds had access to that part of the Aviles correspond- 
ence which has been printed by Ruidiaz and which, as 
previously noted, appears to have been in part consulted 
by Barrientos, 

On comparing the Meras and Barrientos relations they 
are found to contain numerous parallel passages in which 
not only are the events related in the same sequence, but 
the same phrasing and even words are employed in an 
identical arrangement. Many sentences are absolutely 
the same in both, while others differ only in the tense of 
the verb, or else employ the same words in a slightly 
different order.' The supposition that one writer copied 
from the other is precluded by the occasional occurrence 
in one of the accounts, either in the body of a sen- 
tence common to both writers, or at the end of the 
same, of a qualifying word or clause relating to a detail 
which does not occur in the other, as well as by an occa- 
sional difference in a number, which Barrientos, as a rule, 
spells, while Meras employs the Arabic numerals. It 
follows that these passages in Barrientos and Meras were 
obtained from the same original, for they present all 
the appearance of an abridgment following very closely 
the language of the original document. It also seems 
probable, from the variance in the numerals referred to 
and an ocasional variance in the readings, where the 
words employed still remain identical,' that the two 

' See tomo i., p. lo, note ; p. 39, note and elsewhere. 
* Compare Meras, pp. 74-77, and Barrientos, pp. 44-45. 
" " 111-126, " " " 63-69. 

" 151-156, " " " 87-90. 

^ See the varying account of the answer of the sailor. Barrientos, in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 63, and Meras in Ruidiaz, 
La Florida, tomo i., p. iii ; of the tying of Ribaut's hands, Barrientos, 
ibid., p. 69, and Meras, ibid., p. 125. 



Preface ix 

abridgments were made from different copies of the 
original, or that one of the accounts has been less care- 
fully edited than the other. 

The question arises at once — What was this original 
document from which both of these writers have derived 
so large a part of the incidents which they relate ? The 
statement of Barrientos, above quoted, that Aviles on his 
return from Florida to Spain in 1567 "presented this re- 
lation to the King," points with much probability to 
the conclusion that it was the original relation of Aviles 
himself. The possibility of this being the case is borne 
out by the fact that the Memorial of Meras, who had 
returned to Spain in July, 1566, terminates with the ar- 
rival of Aviles at Court in 1 567, and also by the statement 
of Barrientos that he finished his account in December, 
1568, which was subsequent to the same event. 

Barcia's account is largely taken from the Memorial of 
Solis de Meras, a manuscript copy of which was in his 
possession.' On pp. 85-90 Barcia gives a lengthy ex- 
tract from it and distinguishes the quotation from his 
own text by reference to the original and by printing it 
in italics. The quotation corresponds to the Meras ac- 
count given by Ruidiaz on pp. 110-131 in volume i. of 
his La Florida, which includes parallel passages in Bar- 
rientos. These two versions are not absolutely identical. 
There are occasional differences in certain words used in 
both accounts, in the tenses of the verbs, and there are a 
few unimportant transpositions and omissions. From all 
this it appears probable that Barcia and Ruidiaz had 
access to two different copies of the Meras Memorial. 
Several other short extracts from the Memorial are also 
given in italics, and the major part of Barcia's text is 
merely a condensation of the Meras narrative. Barcia 
also states that he had access to the papers of Aviles." 

' Ensayo Cronologico, Introduction, ^ 6'^ and p. 90. 
* Ibid., Introduction, \ 6^. 



X Preface 

In addition to the matter taken from the Meras Memor- 
ial he gives a number of details which do not appear in 
Barrientos, or in the documents published by Ruidiaz.' 
Barcia was aware of the existence of the Barrientos 
manuscript, but was unable to obtain access to it/ The 
curious result arrived at is that all three of the published 
accounts appear to have been largely derived from a com- 
mon source, — the as yet undiscovered relation of Aviles 
himself. 

This conclusion, if correct, has an important and ob- 
vious bearing on the value of the three narratives, since it 
reduces to a single source the evidence for the greater 
part of the events which they record in place of accepting 
them as three concurrent and independent sources of 
testimony. It follows that the reliability of the three 
narratives ultimately reposes upon the unsupported state- 
ments of Aviles except in so far as the latter are verified 
by the correspondence of the French and Spanish am- 
bassadors and by contemporary French accounts. As- 
suming the above conclusion to be correct, the effort has 
been made to present the character of Aviles in such a 
light, not palliating his faults, nor yet belittling his vir- 
tues, that the reader may form for himself an independ- 
ent estimate of his sincerity unbiassed by the confidence 
which the writer is disposed to place in his unsupported 
statements. 

This confidence is founded upon the concurrence of the 
Aviles correspondence, extending over a period of several 
years, with the substance of the Aviles relation given by 
the writers above referred to ; the absence of any reason- 
able motive for a misrepresentation of the facts on his 
part ; the fact that Fourquevaux nowhere impugns his 

•See ibid., Ano XLVII., p. 125, where names of vessels and of persons 
are given which do not appear elsewhere, and the date of the departure of 
Aviles for Carlos, March ist, not mentioned by either Meras or Barrientos. 

^ Ensayo Cronologico, Introduction, T[ i<^. 



Preface xi 

veracity ; that Aviles does not appear to have been of an 
intriguing disposition; that he was too continuously, 
variously, and actively employed to have sustained suc- 
cessfully a prolonged deception ; and that his letters 
betray, as a rule, the curt and frank bearing of a soldier 
rather than the place-seeking suavity of a courtier. 

In recent years but two works of importance have ap- 
peared which treat at any length of the Florida episode. 
The first is Mr. Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New 
World, of which the first edition was published in Boston 
in 1865. The incident of the French colony in Florida 
occupies about one-third of the book. Mr. Parkman 
informs us that he had access to some of the Aviles cor- 
respondence entitled Siete Cartas escritas al Rey, Alios de 
IS^5 y 1566, MS., a copy of which was procured for him 
by Mr. Buckingham Smith,' that distinguished and inde- 
fatigable investigator for material relating to the history 
of Spain within our country. Unfortunately Mr. Park- 
man made but a very slight use of them, citing only three 
letters." In 1875, M. Paul Gaffarel published his Histoire 
de la Floride Francaise, in which his only knowledge of 
the Spanish side of the story was apparently confined to 
that given by Parkman and to an exceedingly cursory 
reading of Barcia. He gave us, however, our first know- 
ledge of the diplomatic correspondence which arose be- 
tween France and Spain on the subject of their respective 
claims to Florida, confining himself entirely to that of 
M. de Fourquevaux, the French ambassador at Madrid, 
of whose unpublished letters he printed some interesting 

' Pioneers of France in the New World, Boston, 1893, pp. 6, 104, 
note I. 

''Parkman cites only the letters of September 11, October 15, and 
December 12, 1565, which is dated December 25th in Ruidiaz. The re- 
maining letters are those of August 13, December 5, December 16, 
1565, and January 30, 1566, Mr. Henry Ware has given an English 
translation of all of them in the Massachusetts Historical Society Proceed- 
ings, 2d series, vol. viii., pp. 416-468. 



Xll 



Preface 



extracts. In 1893 Mr. Parkman published his revised 
twenty-fifth edition of The Pioneers in which he made 
some reference to the extracts of the Fourquevaux corre- 
spondence printed by Gaffarel, but with no addition to 
the Spanish side of the story. Of shorter recent essays 
on the subject there are but two deserving of special 
mention. These are "Un glorieux episode maritime et 
colonial des Guerres de Religion " by Maurice Delpeuch, 
published in the Revue Maritime, tome civ., pp. 1882, 
2150, October and November, 1902, and the concise 
chapter on the "French and Spaniards in Florida" 
in "Spain in America," by Professor E. G. Bourne, 
volume iii. of The American Natio7i : A History, pub- 
lished in 1904. 

Since the appearance of the histories of Parkman and 
Gaffarel, not only have the two Spanish works previously 
referred to been published, but the first volume of the 
letters of M. de Fourquevaux has also appeared, extend- 
ing over the period embraced in this present volume. In 
addition to this new material, the importance of which 
cannot be underestimated, a careful search in the archives 
of Seville, Madrid, Paris, and London, and in collections 
in New York and Washington, has revealed the existence 
of unpublished documents of much value bearing upon 
this period, such as letters and reports exhibiting the 
Spanish attitude towards French colonisation in Florida; 
the Spanish accounts of the depredations committed by 
the Laudonnifcre colony, and the correspondence of the 
Spanish ambassador at Paris with Philip II. during all of 
this period, which fills out the Fourquevaux correspond- 
ence and throws an interesting light on the relations of 
Catherine de' Medici and Philip in their contest for su- 
premacy in the peninsula of Florida. A liberal use has 
been made of all this material in the preparation of the 
present volume, rather with the view of bringing out 
the true attitude of the Spaniards than that of retelling 



Preface xiii 

the story of the French colony, which has already been 
done with so much ability. 

In conclusion it may not be amiss to make some refer- 
ence to the ponderous quarto manuscript history of 
Florida by Pulgar, MSS. 2999 in the Biblioteca Nacional, 
Madrid, the title of which is as follows: 

Historia general de la Florida / 6\\x\di&s& en tres partes/ La 
primera Parte / contiene sus descubrimiento, description 
{sic), y los / successos temporales y Espirituales, assi / de 
los Espanoles, como franzeses, ingleses/y Las Missiones 
de Religiosos/ dominicos, de la compania y /franciscos/ 
La segunda Parte / Contiene el descubrimiento de los 
franzeses desde / el afio de 1669 {sic), y sus suzesos, y 
la Relazion de los/viajes, q los Espanoles han hecho al 
Seno Mexi / cano desde el ano de 1683 {sic) asta el de 
1673 y/la description de la Bahia de s'.^ Maria /de galve, 
y otro de la empalizada / La tercera parte / pone la Rela- 
zion de el Alvar nunez cabaza de Vaca/ enteramente. y 
La historia de Hernado {sic) de Soto / continuada, com- 
pilada de las decadas / de Antonio de Herrera / Escribiala/ 
El D°'' D.P? Fernz de Pulgar Canonigo de La/ss''' iglesia 
de Palenzia, y Coronista /mayor de indias /dedicasse./ 

This manuscript history appears to be a development 
of certain chapters on Florida referred to in the Preface 
to Book IV. and also in the Index to volume iii. of 
Pulgar's Historia General de las Indias Occidentales, De- 
cada Nona, continua la de Antonio de Herrera desde el 
aflo 1555 asta el de 1565 (Bib. Nac, Madrid, MSS. 2796- 
2799), but which do not appear therein. It consists of 
yy6 closely written pages in a small and cramped cali- 
graphy rather difficult to decipher, and is divided into 
two parts of two and three books respectively. The first 
book has six chapters, as follows: i. The discovery of 
Florida. 2. Its coast. 2 {sic). Its people and customs. 
5 {sic). Spanish discovery, De Leon, Ayllon, etc. 6 {sic). 
French discoveries, Ribaut, Laudonni^re, etc. 7 {sic). 



XIV 



Preface 



What remains to be discovered. The second book is en- 
titled "Spanish Expeditions to Florida " and contains ten 
chapters on De Leon, Ayllon, Narvaez, De Soto, Fr. 
Luis Cancer, the fleet lost on the Florida coast in 1553, 
and Arellano. The third book entitled " French Expedi- 
tions and Men6ndez de Aviles," consists of ten chapters 
on Ribaut, Avil6s, the Jesuit missions, and Gourgues. 
The fourth book consists of six chapters on English ex- 
peditions to Florida, and the second Franciscan mission. 
All of these chapters are divided into numbered sections. 
The second part is in four books. The first book is a 
description of Louisiana in three chapters. The second 
book treats of Spanish discoveries since 1685 in two 
chapters. The second {stc) book contains the relation of 
Cabe^a de Vaca and the second {sic) book relates the De 
Soto expedition in twenty-nine chapters. 

The work is unfinished and the chapters are frequently 
incomplete, many of them being represented by a short 
paragraph of one or two pages only ; others are very 
long, and still others have merely the title of the chap- 
ter written in, the page below being left blank. The ma- 
terial is unorganised, the same subject being sometimes 
repeated two or three times under different headings. 
The text consists very largely of extracts from and ab- 
stracts of published histories and accounts of the events 
related, the abstracts from two or more writers on the 
same subject being arranged in successive sections under 
the chapter heading. 

The authors whose works have furnished the material 
for the history, and to whom constant reference is made, 
appear to cover all the literature on the subject in 
Spanish, French, and Latin extant at the time of its 
composition. The list includes in Spanish : Herrera, 
Torquemada, Las Casas, Castellano, Gomara, Padilla, 
Rivas, Garcilaso, Nieremberg, Remesal, etc.; in French: 
De Thou, Le Challeux, Laudonni^re, De Laet, etc. ; in 



Preface xv 

Latin : Algambe, Ribadeneyra, Camargo, Schott, Mon- 
tanus, De Bry, Le Moyne, etc., and, in Italian, Benzoni. 

In a word, the history is a vast and ill-digested com- 
pendium of all of the published material extant at the date 
of its writing, and the inference of Dr. Brinton, who had 
never seen the manuscript, that "it was not probable" 
that it "would add any notable increment to our know- 
ledge " ' is largely justified. 

In conclusion the author wishes to express his obliga- 
tion to Dr. Jos6 Ignacio Rodriguez, Librarian and Chief 
Translator of the International Bureau of the American 
Republics, for his kindly assistance in the deciphering of 
some obscure passages in the Spanish documents which 
have been consulted. 

Woodbury Lowery. 

Washington, D. C. 
February, 1905. 

' Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, Philadelphia, 1859, p. 36. 



CONTENTS 



Preface 



PAGE 
V 



BOOK I. THE FRENCH COLONY 

CHAPTER 

I — The Spanish Treasure Fleets and Florida 



II — The First French Colony .... 

Ill — The Second French Colony. The Timuquanans 
IV — The Second French Colony — Continued 
V — The Third French Expedition 
VI — Philip's Notice to France . 
VII — Pedro Menendez de Aviles 
VIII — The Departure of Aviles for Florida 
IX — The Capture of Fort Caroline 
X — The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 



3 

28 

49 
75 
94 

lOI 

120 
142 

155 
186 



BOOK II. THE SPANISH COLONY 

I — The Ays Expedition. Aviles at Havana . . .211 

II — The Carlos Expedition. Mutiny at the Settlements . 228 
III — Expeditions to Guale, St. John's River, and Chesapeake 

Bay 244 

IV — Father Martinez and his Companions .... 264 
V — Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano. Return of Avil£s 

to Spain 275 

VI — Mutiny at St. Augustine. Pardo's Second Expedition . 293 

VII — Philip Notifies France of the Massacre . . . 299 

VIII — The French Revenge 314 

xvii 



xviii Contents 

BOOK III. THE GUALE AND VIRGINIA MISSIONS 
CONDITION OF THE COLONY 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I — The Guale Mission. Destitution of the Colony . . 339 

II — The Virginia Mission 359 

III — The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida .... 367 

APPENDICES 

APPENDIX 

A — Registered Gold and Silver Imported into Spain from 

the West Indies, 1560-1569 387 

B — The " Ri verb DE Mai" 389 

C — The Pillar Set up by Ribaut 393 

D — The Rivers between the " Rivere de Mai "and Port 

Royal 394 

E — Port Royal 399 

F — Charleskort 403 

G — Fort Caroline 405 

H — TiMUQUA 407 

I — Laudonniere's Story of the November Mutiny . . 409 
J — Maps of the French Colonies in Florida and South 

Carolina 410 

K — La Terre des Bretons 417 

L — Portraits of Pedro Menendez de Avil£s . . . . 41S 

M — The Deposition of Jean Memyn 420 

N — The Captured French Vessels 420 

O — The Oath of Aviles . . . • 421 

P — The Death of Ribaut 425 

Q — The Situation of Aviles at the Time of the Massacre . 429 

R — Ays 431 

S — Santa Lucia . • 434 

T— Caloosa 436 

U — San Felipe 438 

V — Tegesta 440 



Contents xlx 

APPENDIX PAGE 

W — The Date of Pardo's First Expedition .... 443 

X — Pardo's First Expedition 444 

Y — Tocobaga 448 

Z — Pardo's Second Expedition 450 

AA — Tacatacuru 452 

BB — The Spanish Account of Gourgues's Attack on San 

Mateo .......... 454 

CC — The Second Voyage of Aviles to Florida . . . 457 

DD — AXACAN 458 

EE — The Site of the Segura Mission 461 

FF — Mapa de la Florida y Laguna de Maimi donde se ha de 

HACER UN FUERTE 464 

Index 467 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Pedro Menendez de Aviles, in " Retratos de los EspaNoles 
Ilustres con UN Epitome de sus Vidas," Madrid, 1791 

Frontispiece 

" Florida Americans ProvincI/E Recens & exactissima de- 
scRiPTio," BY Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, published by 
De Bry in 1591 28 

Map of the French Florida Colony of 1562-65, by Nicolas 

BeLLIN, in " HiSTOIRE ET DESCRIPTION GeNERALE DE LA NOU- 

VELLE France," par le P. de Charlevoix, Paris, 1744 . 34 

Map of Florida, i 562-1 574. Compiled by Woodbury Lowery. 210 

" Mapa de la Florida y Laguna de Maimi," i 595-1600 (?), in 

THE Archives of the Indies, Seville 286 



BOOK I 
THE FRENCH COLONY 



BOOK I 
THE FRENCH COLONY 



CHAPTER I 

THE SPANISH TREASURE FLEETS AND FLORIDA 

WITH the opening of the year 1562, the eastern coast 
of the continent of North America from Panuco 
to the St. Lawrence was still untenanted by the white 
man. To the north the region discovered by Cartier and 
Roberval had become the seat of short-lived colonies, 
which had been abandoned in despair, and France ap- 
peared for the time being to have withdrawn from the 
unequal contest with the wilderness. To the south the 
persistent efforts of Spain to take possession of the vast 
region to which she laid claim had proved equally abor- 
tive, although they had brought her some acquaintance 
with the interior of the country and with the nature of 
its savage inhabitants. She, too, had become discour- 
aged by her vain attempts, her useless sacrifice of life and 
treasure, the stern reception given her by the warlike 
natives, and her failure to discover those sources of the 
precious metals which had so amply rewarded her con- 
quests in Mexico and South America. She no longer 

3 



4 The Spanish Settlements 

feared the intrusion of another power within this part of 
her domain, where she herself had so signally failed, and 
in September of the previous year Philip had proclaimed 
that no further attempt should be made to colonise the 
eastern coast,* 

It was true that she professed it to be her desire to 
bring into the bosom of the Church the natives of her 
vast transatlantic dominions, but she felt herself fully 
equal to the gigantic task, and would brook no interfer- 
ence in her mission, even from foreigners of her own 
faith. Moreover, the greater portion of the continent 
was hers by right of discovery, conquest, and papal 
patent, and its boundless treasures furnished the sinews 
for her incessant European and African wars. Although 
she had now abandoned a small part of her Atlantic 
coast, her unparallelled success in other regions had soon 
awakened jealousies and stimulated competitors, lured 
by other incentives than the cure of souls, and she was 
determined to defend the pathway to the New World 
against the intrusion of all her rivals. Portugal, France, 
and England watched with envious eyes the extension of 
her possessions and the uninterrupted stream of gold that 
flowed into her coffers. As the route by which this 
wealth reached her ports of Cadiz and Seville had a direct 
bearing on her policy with regard to Florida, we will now 
proceed to consider how vast this wealth was, the path 
by which it crossed the Atlantic, and the risks to which it 
was exposed on its way. 

Whether 1497 or 1501 be fixed upon for the inception 
of commercial relations between Spain and the Indies, 
the establishment of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville, 
by cedula of February 14, 1503, through which all busi- 
ness with the Indies was compelled to pass, with the 
appointment of its governing board consisting of three 
officers, agent, treasurer, and accountant, indicates that 

' Spanish Settlements, 1513-1561, p. 376. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 5 

even at that early period a trade of considerable magni- 
tude was already in existence.' 

The bulk of the exports from the mother country 
consisted chiefly of grain and provisions, arms, ammuni- 
tion, and clothing, for the colonists were still compara- 
tively few in number, and their warlike occupations gave 
them little leisure to indulge in luxuries. Horses and 
cattle, seed, plants, and instruments of agriculture occa- 
sionally formed a part of the cargo of the outgoing ves- 
sels, and slaves, both black and white, as we have seen in 
a previous volume. These exports were encouraged by 
an absolute freedom from duties during the first half of 
the sixteenth century and by the opening of other ports 
of the realm to the West India trafific' The vessels re- 
turned from the Indies loaded with brazil and other native 
woods, dye-stuffs, medicinal herbs, cotton, hides, gold, 
and silver, and articles of native production. 

It is difficult at this distance of time, and with the 
limited data at our command, to determine with any ap- 
proach to exactitude the value of the precious metals 
exported from Spanish America to the mother country 
during the first half of the sixteenth century. Moncada 
states that by 1595 two thousand millions of registered 
gold and silver had entered Spain from the Indies since 
their discovery,^ and Navarette, writing in 1626, asserts 

' D. Rafael Antunez y Acevedo. Metnorias Hist6ricas sobre la Legisla- 
cidn y Gobierno del Contercio de los Espaiioles con sus Colonias en las Indias 
Occidentales, Madrid, 1797, pp. i, 3. 

^Antunez, ibid., pp. 21, 24. The cedula of January 15, 1529, opened 
nine ports in addition to that of Cadiz. This privilege appears to have 
fallen into disuse, ovv^ing, among other reasons, to the necessity of sailing in 
convoy and the imposition of export duties. It was revoked in 1573. Ibid., 
pp. II, 13, 20, 22, The cedula is given in full, ibid.. Appendix, p. i. See 
E. G. Bourne, " Spain in America," New York, 1904, in The American 
Nation: A History, vol. iii., pp. 282-284, for Spain's colonial commerce 
during this period. 

^ Sancho de Moncada. Restanracidn Politica de Espafia, Primera Parte, 
Deseos Publicos al Rey Don Filipe Tercero nuestro seiior, Madrid, 1619. 
" Discurso Tercero," cap. i., fol. 21b. 



6 The Spanish Settlements 

that during the century comprised between the years 
1519 and 1617 this imported wealth amounted to 1536 
millions.' As the new country became known and the 
mines were discovered and worked, the annual importa- 
tions of the precious metals, though comparatively small 
at first, increased rapidly. It is reported that during 
four years of the period which we are now considering 
(1564, 1566, 1567, and 1568) something like thirty and a 
half million dollars found their way into Spain, an esti- 
mate which does not include quantities of jewels and 
precious stones. This was an enormous sum, when we 
consider that its purchasing power was perhaps fourfold 
what it is to-day. What may have been the total value 
of the unregistered wealth surreptitiously introduced into 
the kingdom from the same sources through the con- 
nivances of interested and dishonest officials, it is natur- 
ally impossible to determine. Unquestionably it must 
have been very great when we consider the facilities that 
were offered for defrauding the revenue.* 

Spain quickly recognised that her increasing pro- 
sperity could not be displayed with impunity before the 
greedy eyes of her less fortunate neighbours. Neither was 
she slow in taking the necessary precautions. " En boca 
cerrada no entran moscas," says the Spanish proverb, 
and in two different directions did Spain strive to exclude 
these buzzing flies from her succulent morsels, that she 
might close to them every channel of information con- 
cerning her West Indian possessions. In the first place, 
she sought to prevent the publication of all charts and 
maps which could indicate the way thither. This did 
not arise from any absence of information concerning her 
distant domains. As the discoveries progressed the mass 

' Pedro Fernandez Navarette, Conservacidn de Monarquias, Madrid, 
1626, p. 143. And see Humboldt, Etisayo Politico, tomo iii., p. 316 ; E. 
G, Bourne, "Spain in America," p. 301. 

' See Appendix A. Registered Gold and Silver imported into Spain from 
the West Indies. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 7 

of geographical material accumulated by Spanish mariners 
and explorers became accessible to the map makers, for 
masters of vessels and pilots were required to keep a 
record of their journeys for the purpose of facilitating the 
navigation of the Atlantic' A register was kept of all 
the islands, bays, shoals, and ports, their contours and 
locations, and the distance of the voyages to the Indies, 
which was deposited in the Casa de Contrataci6n in Se- 
ville there to be "well guarded and concealed " *; every 
precaution was taken to see that pilots and masters of ves- 
sels were thoroughly equipped with all the nautical knowl- 
edge and the instruments pertaining to their art, and 
discoverers were ordered to forward a full and complete 
relation of all they had done to the Council of the Indies/ 
As early as 15 ii it was forbidden to supply foreigners 
with charts or maps,^ and in 1527 Charles V. enacted that 
even pictures and descriptions of the Indies should not 
be sold or given to them without special licence/ Such 
was the secretiveness of the authorities that no official 
map of the western discoveries was published in Spain 
until the year 1790, and it has been thought that this 
reticence on the part of the Government may have led 
to the suppression of Peter Martyr's First Decade and of 
the La Cosa Map, which was in some of the copies/ 

' Herrera, Historia de las Indias Occidentales , Madrid, 1730, tomo ii., 
dec. 4, lib. ii., cap. vi., p. 32, 1527. 

* Recopilacidn de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias, Madrid, 1841, lib. ix., 
tit. xxiii., ley 12, tomo ii., p. 303. 

^ Ibid., lib. iv., tit. i., ley 14, 1542, tomo ii., p. 95. For early regu- 
lations of this description see Final Report of Investigations among the 
Indians of the Southzvestern United States, Carried on Mainly in the Years 
from j88o to i88j, By A. F. Bandelier, part i., p. 45, note i. See also 
Henry Harrisse, The Discovery of North America, pp. 11-17. 

■• Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 113, note 3. 

^Recopilacidn, lib. ix., tit. xxiii., ley 14, tomo iii., p. 303; Kohl's essay 
on the Ribero Map in Maine Hist. Col., 2d series, vol. i., p. 302. 

*J. C. Brevoort, in his "Notes on the Verrazano Map" {Journal of 
the Am. Geographical Soc. of New York, 1873, vol. iv,, p. 240,) and in 



8 The Spanish Settlements 

The other precaution taken was the total exclusion of 
foreigners from the crews of vessels sailing to the West 
Indies. Masters of vessels were required to be natives of 
Castile, Aragon, or Navarre, and no foreigners were per- 
mitted to hold the office.' No foreign sailors were al- 
lowed in the armadas and fleets sailing to the Indies, and 
officers were commissioned with authority to visit the 
outgoing vessels in order to assure themselves of the due 
execution of the law and to prevent their embarkation.* 
Finally the exclusion of foreigners from the Indies in any 
other capacity except under licence was rigorously en- 
acted.' But the sheen of the gold was too dazzling to be 
hidden in this ostrich-like fashion, and in a hundred differ- 
ent ways the story of Spain's newly acquired wealth reached 
the outer world, and the knowledge of it spread. The 
French ambassador at Madrid, M. de Fourquevaux, kept 
his Most Christian Majesty fully informed of the expected 
treasure fleets from Peru and Mexico and of their arrival.* 
The banks at Lyons were also advised of the same." 
Portuguese agents sought to bribe Spanish pilots to show 
them the way.' French pilots went to Seville and se- 

Verrazano the Navigator, New York, 1874, p. 102, cited also in Narr. 
and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 113, notes 2 and 3. 

' Recopilacidn, lib, ix., tit. xxiii., ley 4, 1527, tomo iii., p. 303. 

^ Ibid., lib. ix., tit. xxv., ley 12, 1553, tomo iii., p. 317, ibid., ley 14, 
1554. 

^ Recopilacidn, lib. iv., tit. ii., ley i, 1501 and 1526, tomo ii., p. 96; 
ibid., tit. i., ley 3, tomo ii. p. 93, and lib. ix., tit. xxvi., ley i, 1560, 
tomo iv., p. I. Instructions given to Ovando, September 17, 1501. In- 
structions given to the Casa de Contratacion by Ferdinand and Isabella in 
1510. Antunez, Memorias, pp. 41-42, 268 et seq. E. G. Bourne, "Spain 
in America," New York, 1904, in The American Nation : A History, vol, 
iii., p. 245, instances some of the exceptions. 

^ D^peches de M. de Fourquevaux A mbassadeur du Roi Charles IX. en 
Espagne 1563-1372, publiees par M. I'Abbe Douais, Paris, 1S96, pp. 97, 
124, 126, et passim. 

^ Alava i Philippe II., Lyon, 22 Juillet, 1564, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 
1502 (id). 

* Herrera, tomo i., dec. i., lib. vii., cap. iii., p. 197. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 9 

cretly made the voyage to the Indies as sailors on Spanish 
vessels.' Shipwrecked mariners and unsuccessful colonists 
rescued by passing vessels brought their knowledge to the 
country of their rescuers, while paid spies and informers 
were employed by the countries interested in obtaining 
such information. 

With the rapid extension and increase of this traffic the 
high seas were soon filled with vessels of other nationali- 
ties preying upon it. To these France and England con- 
tributed the greatest number. During the first half of 
the century France and Spain, it is true, were almost 
continually at war with each other except for brief inter- 
vals of peace in which to recover breath. England was 
ostensibly at peace with Spain for the entire period. But 
the piratical subjects of both countries, acting appar- 
ently in defiance of the wishes of the home Government, 
were in reality often in secret connivance with interested 
ofificials of the most exalted position. The French cor- 
sair, Jean Florin, identified by some authorities with the 
explorer Verrazano, captured the treasures sent home by 
Cortes ^ ; French pirates sank Spanish vessels which were 
coming from Peru,^ or made a bold descent upon Ha- 
vana * ; the announcement was made of the fitting out of a 

' Christobal de Haro to Charles V., April 8, 1541, MS. Arch, Gen. de 
Indias, Sevilla, est. 143, caj. 3, leg. 11. 

'^ Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iv., pp. 5, 21, 1523. E. G. Bourne 
(" Spain in America," New York, 1904, in The American Nation: A History, 
vol. iii., p. 143, note 3) says the identity of Verrazano v^rith Florin has 
been disproved by Peragallo, Bull, of the Sac. Geog. Ital., 3d series, vol. 
ix., p. 189, and had never any documentary evidence to rest on. 

' " Reponses du ministere de France a diverses reclamations presentees au 
nom de I'Empereur par Jean de Saint Mauris, son ambassadeur {1545, avril 
ou mai)." Sans date. Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle d^apres les 
manuscrits de la Biblioth}que de Besancon, publics sous la direction de M. 
Ch. Weiss. Paris, 1S41, vol. iii., p. 140. 

* " Relacion de lo subcedido en la Habana, cerca de la entrada deles- 
Franceses en ella." In Coleccidn de varios Documenios para la Historia de 
la Florida y Tierras adyacentes, By Buckingham Smith, Londres (1857 ?), 
tomo i., p. 202. 



lo The Spanish 'Settlements 

fleet in England for the purpose of sacking the island 
of Madeira." The cutting out of a treasure ship of 
the fleet returning from the Indies' became of such 
frequent occurrence that as early as 1541 Spain sought 
to obtain from the English Government a statute for- 
bidding the sailing of any armed vessels from its ports 
for Brazil or the Indies without security being given 
by their commanders that they would not molest Span- 
ish subjects. ' 

Particularly exposed to depredations of this nature 
were the many vessels which, shipping hides, sugar, and 
cassia in the islands of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, 
threaded the Gulf of Mexico to carry their merchandise 
to Tierra Firma, Honduras, and Spain. These vessels 
were unwilling to sail home in convoy with the fleet 
which gathered at Havana for that purpose, because it 
would involve them in serious delay ; and thus, compelled 
to return unattended with the money which they had ob- 
tained in exchange for their merchandise, they fell an 
easy prey to the pirates infesting the Gulf of Mexico.* 

Necessity soon pointed the way to a method of self- 
protection, and very early in the course of the century it 
became customary for the vessels going to and arriving 
from the Indies to sail together in company in order to 

' " Copia de carta de Su Majestad al Conde de Feria, fechaen Bruselas a 
24 de Abril de 1559 " in Coleccidii de Docitmentos InMitos para la Historia de 
Espaiia, por el Marques de la Fuensanta del Valle, D. Jose Sancho Rayon 
y D. Francisco de Zabalburu, tomo Ixxxvii., pag. 176. 

' "Capitulo de carta del Obispo Quadra a S. M. de 16 de Agosto de 
1561," in Col. Doc. In^dit. Hist. Espaiia, tomo Ixxxvii., pag. 364. 

^Eustace Chapuys to the Queen Regent, Jan. 2 (4), 1541, London, in 
Calandar of State Papers, Spanish, vol. vi., Pt. I., p. 304. 

'' Pero Menendez (de Aviles) sobrel Remedio, pa. q haya muchos nabios 
(undated), Rrit. Mas. Add. MSS. 28, 366, fol. 299b. The letter appears 
from internal evidence to have been written at some date between July, 
1 561, and the spring (?) of 1562, prior to any Spanish knowledge of the 
French occupation of Florida, Aviles being then in Spain, having returned, 
from his second voyage to the Indies. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 1 1 

afford one another mutual protection.' It was one of 
the duties of the visitador of the Casa de Contrataci6n 
not only to see that the vessels were properly equipped 
with a crew and supplies for the long voyage, but also 
that they carried arms and ammunition with which to 
encounter the sea-robber.' But as the sailing together 
of the vessels was not compulsory, individual ships or a 
small company of two or three would set out under a 
special permit and meet their fate at the hands of the pi- 
rates, to whom they could offer no effective resistance. 
A stop was at last put to this by royal c^dula of July 
l6, 1 561. It was enacted that in January and August 
of every year two expeditions should sail from the rio de 
Sevilla, the one called the Fleet of New Spain, with desti- 
nation for the Antilles and the Gulf of Mexico, and the 
other called the Fleet of Tierra Firme for Carthagena. 
The two fleets were to proceed together under the com- 
mand of an admiral, and on arriving off Dominica, the 
vessels destined for New Spain were to divide from those 
destined for Tierra Firme, with the General of the fleet 
in command of the one and the Admiral of the other.' 

Another danger to which the merchant fleet was ex- 
posed arose from the selfishness of individual captains 
who endeavoured to save themselves at the expense of 
their companions. On an attack of the pirates the ves- 
sels would disperse like a flock of frightened sheep, those 
that were swift and light abandoning those that were slow 
and more heavily laden to the mercy of the enemy ; and 
the rumour of the presence of a pirate in the neighbour- 
hood of a port would inspire them with such terror that 

' Antunez, Memorias, pp. 83, 84, thinks it dates from the beginning of 
the commerce of the West Indies. 

"^ Ibid., pp. 59, 61, 69, and see also the cedula of Feb. 13, 1552, ibid., p. 
16. 

^ Ibid., p. 85; Disquisiciones Nduticas, por Cesareo Fernandez Duro, 
Madrid, 1877, p. 169. 



12 The Spanish Settlements 

it would delay the sailing for days. To this danger the 
fleet was particularly exposed in time of war, and in 1521 
an armada was sent to protect the merchantmen arriving 
from the Indies, owing to the presence of French vessels 
off the coast of Andalusia and of Algarve.' The follow- 
ing year an armada was sent as far as the Canaries to 
convoy the outgoing India fleet. In 1532, fearing the 
revival of a war with France, an armada was raised to pro- 
tect the vessels arriving from the Indies. In 1552 it was 
provided that an armada of four galleons and two cara- 
vels should escort the fleet, a second be raised in Santo 
Domingo for the protection of the coasts, and a third be 
stationed off Cape St. Vincent in Spain to guard against 
pirates.' Finally, under the c^dulas of July 15, 1561, 
which regulated the sailing of the fleets, and another of 
October 18, 1564, arose the Armada de las Carreras de 
las Indias^ whose duty it was to escort the fleets on their 
way to the Indies. It then awaited in Havana the gather- 
ing of the various vessels and treasure ships from Tierra 
Firma and New Spain, and accompanied the treasure fleet 
and the merchantmen, who sought its protection on their 
return passage across the ocean. ^ 

The fleets sailed twice a year from Havana during the 
summer season, passed northward through the Straits of 
Florida, or the Bahama Channel as it was then generally 
called, until they reached the neighbourhood of Bermuda, 
when they set their course for the Azores and from 
thence to Seville.^ The passage through the Channel, 

' Ilerrera, tomo ii., dec. 3, lib. i., cap. xiv., p. 23. 

^ Duro, Disquisiciones, pp. 167, 168; Antunez, Memorias, pp. 20, 178. 

^ Antunez, Memorias, pp. 15, 16; Recopilacidn, lib. ix., tit. xxx., ley 55, 
tomo iii., p. 49. 

•* Pero Menendez (de Aviles), sobrel Remedio, pa. q haya muchos nabios, 
Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 28, 366, fol. aggb ; Duro, Disquisiciones , p. 168. 

^ Pero Menendez {de Aviles) sobrel Ketnedio, fol. 2ggb. Derrotero y senas 
de tierra y sondas de la costa de la nueua espana y de tierra firme y buelta 
de las yndias a espana . . . por fran'^° manucl . . . empesose a 15 de 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 13 

discovered by Ponce de Leon ' in his first expedition, was 
considered a dangerous one ' on account of the prevalence 
of violent storms at certain seasons of the year, the 
roughness of its waters, and the ever-present peril of the 
reefs at its entrance, the Martyr Islands of the early maps. 
In its narrowest part it is but thirty-nine miles wide, and 
from the earliest times that its blue and tepid currents 
were ploughed by the keels of the Spanish galleons the 
wreckage along the Florida coast attested its terrors to 
navigators. So fatal was the Channel to merchantmen 
and treasure fleets, that in the course of the following 
century the assistance rendered to Spaniards cast away 
on the Florida shore, the large number of lives rescued, 
and the watch kept upon the passing vessels by the coast 
Indians, subject to the Spanish rule at St. Augustine, 
were perhaps the most powerful of all the arguments pre- 
sented by the Spanish inhabitants of Florida against the 
abandonment of the colony. Even prior to the Spanish 
settlement at St. Augustine, and shortly after Menen- 
dez de Avil^s returned from his second voyage to the 
West Indies, he had begun to urge upon the King the 
necessity of locating and establishing ports of refuge in 
the neighbourhood of the Channel, where vessels disabled 
in its passage and in the region of the "still vex'd Ber- 
mothes" could put in for repairs, and thus avoid the long 
and perilous return to Puerto Rico.' It is not difficult to 
conceive with what apprehension the Government viewed 
the possibility of the establishment of a piratical band in 

abril ano del seilor 1583 as. Brit. Mus. Add, MSS., 28, 189, and see earlier 
maps. J. C. Brevoort in his " Notes on the Verrazano Map " {Journal of 
the Am. Geographical Soc. of New York, 1S73, vol. iv., p. 239,) and in Ver- 
razatio, the Navigator, New York, 1874, p. loi, gives a good note on the 
routes to and from the West Indies. Gomara, Histoire G^n^rale des Indes 
Occidentales. Ed. Fumee, Paris, 1587, liv. vi., chap, xxvi., p. 479 et seq. 
' Herrera, tomo i., dec. i., lib. ix., cap. xii., p. 250. 

* Antunez, Memorias, p. 91. 

* Pero Menendez {de AviUs) sobrel Remedio, fol. 300b. 



14 The Spanish Settlements 

some stronghold along the shore, within easy reach of the 
golden flood which at stated intervals flowed through the 
Channel, or the passing of the Floridian Peninsula and 
the territory to the north of it into the grasp of another 
nation with as keen an appetite for the yellow metal as 
its own, even though it might be a Catholic power and 
friendly for the time being. 

Another and very imminent danger attendant upon any 
settlement by a foreign power in the vicinity of the West 
Indies and of the route of the treasure ships arose from 
conditions peculiar to the population which at that time 
occupied the Spanish colonies, a danger which pointed 
more particularly to France. As early as 15 14 the rapid 
increase of the negro slaves in Hispaniola had already 
become a source of fear to the white population, and 
measures had been taken to prevent it ; ' this as well as 
the slave insurrection in Ayllon's colony,* probably the 
first of its kind within our country, indicate but too 
clearly the treatment to which the negro population 
was subjected at the hands of its masters. By 1560 the 
natural increase of that prolific race, coupled with the 
constant inflow brought by the slave-traders, had created 
a most alarming preponderance in their number over that 
of the whites. Says Men^ndez de Aviles in his letter to 
the King, previously referred to : 

" In the Island of Puerto Rico there are above 15,000 negroes 
and less than 500 Spaniards, and in all of the Island of His- 
paniola there may be 2000 Spaniards and there are over 30,000 
negroes, , , . the same is the case in the island of Cuba 
and in Veracruz, Puerto de Cavallos, which is in Honduras, 
and in Nombre de Dios, Carthagena, Santa Maria, and the 
coast of Venezuela, where there are twenty negroes to one 
white man, and with the lapse of time they will increase to a 
great many more." 

' Spanish Settlements, 1513-1561, p. 112. ' Ibid., p. 167, 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 15, 

And then he points the moral and lays bare the danger. 

" In France no negro is a slave, neither can he become one 
by law of the realm. Were France to arm three or four thou- 
sand men they would be masters of all these islands, and ports 
of Tierra Firma; for the city of Santo Domingo, which is the 
strongest, is easily taken, in spite of the fort, bulwarks, and. 
artillery; and 500 harquebus men — for the honour of the city I 
do not say fewer — could take it with ease, and by freeing the 
negroes, most of whom are ladinos * and natives of the land, 
and by liberating them, so that they be no longer slaves, they 
would kill their own masters, and put all their faith in the 
French, because the French had made them free." ' 

Men^ndez was wise and timely in his warning against 
French aggression, as we shall soon see. 

France, England, and Portugal had all turned their 
eyes on the New World, were spying out its possibilities, 
and seeking to reap what advantage they could from the 
knowledge so obtained. Of the three powers mentioned, 
England was, for the time being, the least to be dreaded. 
Although the Cabot expedition had called forth a protest 
from Spain, the charters for discovery and colonisation 
granted to him and others were "without prejudice to 
Spain and Portugal," and respected the papal bull of de- 
markation. The early part of the sixteenth century was 
spent in building up the English navy as a distinct service, 
and the country was largely occupied with its revolt from 
Rome, the final success of which was instrumental in 
breaking down the respect for the papal bull which had 
stood in the way of England's discovery and colonisation. 

' A ladino was a slave who had served over one year. 

^ Pero Menendez (de Avilh) sobrel Remedio, fol. 300. "Memorial de 
Pedro Menendez de Aviles," undated [1561-62 ?] in E. Ruidi'az y Caravia, 
La Florida, Madrid, 1893, tomo ii., p. 322. " Vida y Hechos de Pero 
Menendez de Auiles," por Bartolome Barrientos, in Dos Antiguas Rela- 
ciones de la Florida, Genaro Garcia, Mexico, 1902, p. 29. 



1 6 The Spanish Settlements 

in more favourable climates of North America than those 
visited by the Cabots. It was this infant navy which 
became the cradle of the Stukeleys, Hawkinses, and 
Drakes, who were to carry her flag in triumph over 
seas.' The period in the era of Spanish enterprise in our 
country which we have now reached (1560-62) was but 
the dawn of their energy before which the older Spanish 
naval supremacy was destined finally to succumb, and 
Spain's watchful jealousy of English aggression in Amer- 
ica can be best considered when the English colony in 
Virginia began to arouse her active resentment. For all 
that, Spanish vigilance was in no wise relaxed, and her 
ambassadors at the English Court kept her faithfully in- 
formed of all rumours and designs upon her West Indian 
possessions.' 

Portuguese pretensions and Spanish distrust began with 
the return of Columbus from his first voyage/ Pope 
Eugenius IV. had granted Portugal the right in per- 
petuity to all heathen lands that might be discovered be- 
yond Cape Bojador on the African coast, including India. 
This grant had been solemnly confirmed by succeeding 
popes, and Spain, by the treaty of 1479, ^"^^ pledged her- 
self not to interfere. But the return of Columbus from 
his first expedition aroused in the suspicious mind of King 
John of Portugal the fear lest he might have been tres- 
passing upon these rights, although Pope Alexander VI. 
had issued his second bull of May 4, 1493, with the ex- 
press intention of avoiding any such conflict between the 

' Froude mentions as an important element of the success of the English 
navy the boat with sails trimmed fore and aft, which could work to windward, 
invented by Mr. Fletcher of Rye, English Seamen in the Sixteenth Cent- 
ury, by James Anthony Froude, New York, 1895, p. 12. 

* The Discovery of America, by John Fiske, Boston and New York, 1892, 
vol. ii., p. 17. The Genesis of the United States, by Alexander Brown, 
Boston and New York, 1890, vol. i., p. 2, note. 

^ Ilerrera, tomo i., dec. i, lib. ii., cap. viii., p. 47 and cap. 10, p. 49 
(1593). 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 17 

two powers.' King John threw out hints of an imme- 
diate rupture to the Spanish embassy sent to announce 
to him the departure of Columbus on his second expe- 
dition, and appears to have contemplated seriously the 
sending of a small fleet to take possession of some point 
in Cathay or Cipango, and then to dispute the Spanish 
claims. But a vigilant eye was kept upon his move- 
ments, the equipment of the fleet was delayed by diplo- 
matic means, and in the following year by the treaty of 
Tordesillas the line of demarkation was advanced west- 
ward 370 leagues beyond the Cape de Verd Islands, which 
secured Brazil, accidentally discovered in 1500, to the 
Portuguese Crown.* 

The progress of Spanish discovery and the wealth 
which it brought to light did not tend to lessen the envy 
of Emanuel I., King John's successor, and so persistent 
were his efforts to learn the path followed by the Spanish 
adventurers that in 15 10 Charles V. sent him word by 
Alonso de la Puente that he was to make an end of 
stealing Spanish pilots.' The following year, Portugal 
seized the Moluccas, and in 15 14 an expedition to Darien 
was only stopped by the timely protest of Spain, ^ Dis- 
putes were soon rife between the rival powers as to the 
longitude of the Moluccas in respect to the dividing line 
at the antipodes, which Pope Alexander had failed to 
define. On account of the intensifying of these disputes 
Spain postponed the proposed Gomez expedition of 1523, 
and in the following year (1524) the Congress called at 
Badajos to settle the question, broke up after two months 

' Fiske, Discovery of America, vol, i,, pp. 325 and authorities there 
cited, 441, 445, 453 ; Ferdinand and Isabella, by William H. Prescott, 
Philadelphia, 1869, vol. ii., pp. 174, 175. 

^ Herrera, tomo i., dec. i, lib. ii., cap. v., p. 43 et seq.; Fiske, Discovery 
of America, vol. ii. , pp. 97, 98, 453, 459 ; Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, 
vol. ii., pp. 176, 177, 181. 

^ Herrera, tomo i., dec. i, lib. vii., cap. xiii., p. 196, 

* Ibid., tomo i., dec. i, lib. x., cap. x., p. 282. 



i8 The Spanish Settlements 

of wrangling, each party still holding to its own opinion.' 
Only six years later (June 20, 1530) was a peaceful con- 
clusion reached by Spain's relinquishment to Portugal of 
all her rights thereto under the bull of demarkation.* 
But Portuguese sailors still passed westward in Spanish 
ships and studied the waterways of our Atlantic coast, 
probably in search of a westward passage to the Moluccas. 
As late as 1562 Menendez complains that in Villafafie's 
expedition to Florida, as well as in that of the Moluccas, 

" there were many Portuguese fighting men and very good 
pilots, and two [of them] who had been captains of caravels of 
the King of Portugal's armada, who, it appears, were sent 
there by their king or by his council to understand and learn 
those navigations and lands and their secrets and of what mat- 
ters the captains of your majesty treat with the peoples of 
those lands," 

and he urges upon the King the exclusion of all for- 
eigners/ For many years after, the ships and adventurers 
of France and England drew an unfailing supply of skil- 
ful pilots from the little kingdom, sometimes enlisting 
them by cunning, sometimes by force, and not infre- 
quently finding in them ready and willing servants to 
conduct their most hazardous enterprises. 

In January, 1548, while present at the Diet of Augs- 
burg, Charles V., believing his end near at hand, had, 
among other instructions advised his son, Philip II., 

"In respect to the Indies, have a care to be ever on the 
watch if the French wish to send an armada thither, secretly 

' Herrera, tomo ii., dec. 3., lib. iv., cap. iii-viii., pp. 178-188. 

"^ Ibid., tomo ii., dec. 4, lib. v., cap. x., p. 93 et seq.; Prescott, Ferdin- 
and and Isabella, vol. ii., pp. l8o, 182 and authorities in note 29 ; Christo- 
pher Columbus, by Justin Winsor, Boston and New York, 1891, pp. 589- 

591- 

^ Fero Menendez (de Avil/s) sobrel Remedio, fol. 303. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 19 

or otherwise, and to notify the governors of those parts to be 
on their guard and where and when necessary in conformity 
therewith, to resist the said French ; for though they have often 
undertaken to go there, it has been observed that their armadas 
have not endured and more than that, when resistance is offered 
them, then they weaken and go to pieces; and thus it is of 
much advantage to be ready to hand against them." ' 

The Emperor's advice was based upon no vague preju- 
dice concerning a neighbour with whom he was constantly 
at war; whose intrigues were for ever fomenting fresh 
trouble for Spain, and whose King had said of the In- 
dies that "God had not created those lands solely for 
Castilians. " ^ 

Breton fishermen had been familiar with the Newfound- 
land fisheries for many years before Verrazano's much- 
disputed expedition to America in 1524 first gained for 
him the notice and favor of Francis I., by whom, indeed, 
it is said to have been authorised/ We have no know- 
ledge of any interference of Spain with the first and sec- 
ond voyages of Jacques Cartier in 1534 and 1535; but 
in 1537, while the war was still in progress in which 
Francis I. had revived his pretensions to Italy, and only 
a few months after Cartier's return, in July, 1536, from his 
second expedition, Charles V. was considering whether 
some article ought not to be introduced in his instructions 
to Los Cobos and Granvelle for treating with the Grand 
Master of France to prevent King Francis from any 

' " Instrucciones de Carlos Quinto a Don Felipe su hijo," Augusta a i8 
de enero, 1548, in Ch. Weiss, Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle, 
vol. iii., p. 295. 

' Herrera, tomoii., dec. 3, lib. vi., cap. ix., p. 189. 

^ Shea's Charlevoix, vol. i., p. 107 ; cited in JVarr. and Crit. Hist. Am., 
vol. iv. , p. 5 and note i ; Henry C. Murphy, The Voyage of Verrazano, New- 
York, .1875, p. 163, and B. F. Da Costa, Verrazano the Explorer, New 
York, 1880, p. 25. 



20 The Spanish Settlements 

undertaking in the Indies.' In the following year the 
King and Queen of Portugal were informed of the Em- 
peror's intention in this respect and of King Francis's 
answer thereto'. Three years later (1540) Spain was 
urging the "slow-moving Portuguese" to take action 
against France in view of certain licenses granted by 
Francis to his subjects to sail for the East and West 
Indies;^ and in November of the same year Los Cobos 
wrote Louis Sarmiento de Mendoza, Spain's ambassador 
to Portugal, that while there was no fear of a French ex- 
pedition against the Indies during the winter, "it must 
be borne in mind that when the Spring sets in, and the 
weather is fine and the winds are favourable they may all 
of a sudden be tempted to carry out their bad intentions." * 
The Emperor did not wait for the French to act in 
order to ascertain their designs. Following the advice 
he had given his son, to forestall any attempt on their 
part to invade the Indies, he dispatched a secret agent, 
Don Pedro de Santiago, during the winter to see what 
the French were doing, and on Santiago's return he was 
sent a second time to visit the entire French coast from 
Bordeaux to Brittany and Normandy to learn what ships 
were arming in the different ports, their number and 
equipment, and if they were designed to rob or injure the 
shipping that came from the Indies. No port, however 
insignificant, appears to have been overlooked, and the 
agent, having ascertained that a fleet of thirteen sail, 

' The Articles discussed with His Majesty at Moncon with regard to the 
instructions to be given to Cobos and Granvelle for treating with the Grand 
Master of France, 1537 ; Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, vol. v., Ft. II., 
p. 407. 

' Luis Sarmiento (de Mendoza) to the Emperor, July 30, 153S ; Calendar 
of State Papers, Spanish, vol. vi., Pt. I., p. 5. 

^ Cardinal Tavera to the Emperor, Madrid, Oct. 11, 1540; Calendar of 
State Papers, Spanish, vol. vi., Pt. I., p. 279. 

■* High Commander Cobos to Luis Sarmiento (de Mendoza), Madrid, Nov. 
16, 1540, Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, vol. vi., Pt. I., p. 291. 



1.^ 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 21 

with ammunition and artillery for a two-years' cruise, 
was being fitted out at St. Malo in command of Jacques 
Cartier, sought an interview with him and learned that 
his intention was to people a country called Canada.* 

The conclusions of the Councils of State and of the 
Indies, based upon Santiago's report, are particularly in- 
teresting in view of what actually occurred twenty years 
later; they find that the intention of the French is "to 
place themselves near the Bahama Channel, which is the 
best position they could take, when the war with France 
shall brake out, to harm the ships of the Indies, for most of 
them come through the said Channel of Bahama, and not 
a single one could pass without their seizing it." " They 
also advise that in place of the single caravel which the 
Emperor had ordered to follow Cartier's fleet three 
should be sent, and recommend that, on learning where 
the French intend to colonise, a person of capacity be 
appointed Captain General, who should publicly appear 
as its discoverer and apply for the right to conquer and 
colonise it, which should be done, however, at the cost of 
the royal treasury. Although the Cardinal of Seville did 
not accept the conclusion of the Councils as to the object 
the French had in view,^ the two caravels were dispatched, 

' Carta de Cristoval de Haro al emperador Carlos 5*^, fecha en Burgos a 
25 de henero de 1541, MS. De samano [Juan de Samano, secretary of 
Charles V.], traslado de una ca q se escriuio a xpobal de haro, de Madrid, 
MS. (undated). Copia de la carta q escriuio xpoiial de haro a su mag. en ocho 
de abril, 1541, MS. All of these three letters in Arch. Gen. de Indias, Sevilla 
est., 143, caj. 3, leg. 11. An extract of this last letter is printed with 
out date or reference in Una Expedicion Espafiola d la Tierra de los Bacal- 
laos en 1^41, Jose Toribio Medina, Santiago de Chile, 1896, p. xxv. 
" Relacion de lo que dice la espia que el Consejo de las Indias embio a 
Francia para saver lo de las Armadas que se preparaban alli," Buckingham 
Smith, Col. Doc, Flo., tomo i., p. 107. 

* " Loque se acuerda en el Consejo de Estado y de Indias sobre lo que se 
presenta tocante al intento de la Armada de Francia, en respuesta a Su 
Majestad," Buck. Smith, Col. Doc, Flo., tomo i., p. 109. 

^Inhisletter of June 10, 1541 ; Buck. Smith, Col. Doc. i^/^7.,tomoi., p. ill. 



22 The Spanish Settlements 

the one sailing from San Lucar, and the other from 
Bayonne in August of the same year, and but a few days 
apart.' 

In 1545 came official complaints concerning certain 
ships from Peru reported to have been sunk by two 
French vessels ' ; neither did the proposed Roberval ex- 
pedition of 1547 escape the sharp eyes of the Spanish 
authorities/ In 1549 Simon Renard, Charles V.'s am- 
bassador at the French Court, was advised to inform 
himself "if vessels are being armed to go to the Indies, 
or to await on their passage near Seville ships of sub- 
jects of the said Emperor arriving from the Indies."* 
In 1555 the French pirate, Pedro Beaguez, visited Santa 
Martha, and Jacques de Soria made a descent upon the 
island of Margarita, where the pearl fisheries were, seized 
the town through the treachery of one of its inhabitants, 
by the freeing of the negro slaves, and caused it to pay a 
heavy ransom. He next visited Santa Martha, where he 
betrayed what Pulgar calls his "Lutheran perfidy" by 
pillaging the church, and then burned Carthagena, and 
burned and sacked Santiago de Cuba and Havana.^ 

At last Charles V. and his son Philip, "King of Eng- 

' Medina, Expediclon d los Bacallaos, pp. xxvii.-xxxv. 

^ " Reponses du ministere de France k diverses reclamations presentees 
au nona de I'Empereur par Jean de Saint Mauris, son ambassadeur " (1545, 
avril ou mai). Sans date. In Papier s d'Elat du Cardinal de Granvelle, vol. 
iii., p. 140. 

^ " Copie de ce qui a este escript de Paris k I'abbe de Sainct Vincent 
touchant (le) Canada," 1547 ; Brit. Mus., Add. MSS. 28,596, fol. 154. 

* " Instructions a Simon Renard, ambassadeur a la cour de France." Sans 
date (Bruxelles, Janvier, 1549), Papier s d'Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle, 
vol. iii., p. 343. 

* " Memorial de Pedro Menendez de Aviles," undated, [1561-62 ?] 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 322 ; Historia General de las Indias Occi- 
dcntales, Decada Nona, continua la de Antonio de Herreradesde el ano de 
1555 asta el de 1565, Doctor D. Pedro Fernandez de Pulgar, tomo i., fol. 
69, Bib. Nac, Madrid, MSS. 2796. And see the versified account of Juan 
de Castellanos in Primera Parte de las elegias de varones illustres de Indias, 
Madrid, 1589, p. 314. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 23 

land," succeeded in imposing the long-contemplated re- 
strictions upon French activity in the Indies. In the 
truce of February 5, 1556, signed at Vaucelles and which 
was to last for five years, Henry II. agreed that "the 
subjects of the said Sir King of France or others at their 
behest shall not traffic, navigate, or trade in the Indies 
belonging to the said Sir King of England, without his 
express leave and license; otherwise, doing the contrary, 
it shall be allowable to proceed against them as enemies; 
the said truce remaining none the less in force and 
vigour. ' ' ' The ink of the treaty of Vaucelles was scarcely 
dry when, four months later (June, 1556), the Neapolitan 
Pope, Paul IV., who had invoked the aid of the Turk in 
his struggle with Philip over the temporalities of the 
Church in Sicily and Naples, induced Henry to break it, 
and the three-years' war with France began which termi- 
nated with the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559. 

To the last moment of the truce Spanish vigilance con- 
tinued on the alert. Villegaignon had sailed for Brazil 
the previous year under the auspices of Admiral Coligny 
to found a Protestant colony there, while Dona Juana, 
widow of Don John of Portugal, was Regent of Spain 
during Philip's absence in England and the Netherlands. 
Renard, who had a secret agent in Normandy giving him 
information of ships under construction and their de- 
stination," wrote to the Regent in July, 1556, that Ville- 
gaignon, 

" having seized a port in the passage of the Indies, is fortifying 
it and has advised the King of France, that if he will send him 
four or five thousand soldiers he will conquer a part of the 

' Corps Universel diplomatique du Droit des Gens, J. Dumont, Amster- 
dam, La Haye, 1726, vol. iv., Partie III., p. 84. "Additions de quelques 
Articles au Traite de Vaucelles, etc." 

^ L'Ambassadeur Renard a Philippe II., Paris, 7 juillet, 1556; Papiers 
d'Etatdu Cardinal de Granvelle, vol. iv., p. 622. 



24 The Spanish Settlements 

Indies for him and prevent the navigation of that part. . . . 
And as the French are arming vessels in Normandy and Brit- 
tany," continues Renard, " although they may be for another 
object, it appeared to me that I should not fail to give this 
advice, in order that your Highness may warn and advise 
those whom it concerns; for they could easily molest travellers 
and navigators to the said Indies." ' 

In 1559 the treaty of Cateau-Cambr^sis was signed be- 
tween Philip and Henry II,, by which France disgorged 
an accumulated plunder of years, said to have equalled 
in value one-third of the kingdom.' No reference was 
made to the Indies in the treaty itself. There appears, 
however, to have been an understanding that, while the 
French pirates and privateers were to be duly punished, 
and while France agreed that she would not interfere 
with Philip's West Indian possessions, she still insisted 
that the freedom of the sea was hers, as well as of those 
regions which did not belong to Spain, and that she would 
not "consent to be deprived of the sea and the heavens," * 

Be that as it may, the Duke of Alba in a subsequent 
conversation with Fourquevaux, the French ambassador 
to Spain, implied that the omission in the treaty arose 
entirely from the absence of any adverse occupation of 
the Indies by the French at the time of its signing.* In 
June of the same year Philip was married by proxy to 
the French Princess Isabella of Savoy, and in January, 
1560, shortly after his return to Spain, he met her for the 
first time at Guadalajara. The close bonds now estab- 

' L'Ambassadeur Renard (a la princesse de Portugal ?). Sans date, 
(Commencement d'aout, 1556); ibid., vol. iv., p. 658. 

' The Rise of the Dutch Republic, John Lothrop Motley, New York, 
1859, vol. i., chap, iii., p. 202. 

' Unsigned and undated note, 1 564-1 566, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 

1503. 
* Lettre au Roi, 24 decembre, 1565, D^piches de M. de Fourquevaux , p, 

17. 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 25 

lished between himself and France, which had been one 
of the main objects of the last treaty, were insufficient 
to quiet Philip's ever-suspicious spirit. Hardly had the 
marriage by proxy been performed, when the Duke of 
Alba, who had represented Philip at the ceremony, was 
writing to the King from Paris regarding the prohibition 
which the French King was to proclaim in respect to the 
navigation of the Indies.' 

In August of the same year Chantone arrived in Paris 
as Philip's ambassador, and began his complaints against 
the French piracies. During November and December 
Rouen citizens were arming vessels at Havre de Grace 
to plunder the Indies," and December 24th Philip wrote 
directing him to oppose the granting by the French King 
of licences to go to the Indies, "because if they sought 
to conquer territory, it could only be on the same coasts 
which we already hold, or in our provinces, which we 
have discovered in those parts, and because they would 
not be able to maintain them." ' 

Early in January of the following year Chantone pro- 
tested in open council against the equipment of the ves- 
sels already referred to. Admiral Coligny replied that 
none of them would be permitted to sail from Brittany 
or Normandy, where he commanded, either for the In- 
dies or to their harm or that of any of the Spanish King's 
subjects.' A few months later, again importuning the 
Cardinal of Lorraine in respect to suspicious vessels arm- 
ing in the same ports, he received the curt reply that the 
French "were under no obligation to hold their vessels 
at the will of their neighbours, nor to be prevented from 



• Letter of July 22, 1559, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1492 (60). 
"■'Letter of Nov. 15, 1559, Blois, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1492(77); 

and Dec. 2, 1559, ibid. (82), fol. 5. 

* Letter, Dec. 24, 1559, Paris, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1493 (12). 
^Letter, Jan. 17, 1560, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1493 (30). 



26 The Spanish Settlements 

sending them where it best suited their convenience, and 
if the Spaniards suspected their actions without reason, 
the French saw no way of undeceiving them." ' 

Everything aroused Chantone's suspicions, from the 
ratthng of an anchor chain to the laying of a keel ; and 
his eyes were never off the ports of Normandy and Brit- 
tany, hotbeds of "Lutherans " and breeding-grounds of 
pirates. Early in the year 1561 reports of the arming 
of a fleet of ten galleys, manned by seventy "Lutheran" 
sailors, carrying fifty pieces of artillery, and provided 
with a launch for shallow water, for the purpose of pillag- 
ing the shores of the Indies and robbing the returning 
Spanish vessels, called for special remonstrance on the 
part of Philip." 

This was followed by a convention of ship captains held 
in England to which the captains of Normandy and Brit- 
tany were summoned, and whose action awaited the return 
of Coligny from Chatillon, where he had gone to spend 
Easter. "This junta of vessels has awakened my sus- 
picions," writes Chantone, "and I was anxious for some 
days, because the Admiral is a friend of novelties, and of 
seeking his own advantage. . . . It is also reported 
that the said ships are bound for the Indies." ^ In May 
he forwarded to the King a report of the ships in the 
various French ports.* Coligny again readily promised 
that he would do all that was in his power, and what was 
just, to stop the piracies.^ Meanwhile the plundering, by 
corsairs, from Normandy and Brittany of Spanish vessels 
returning from the Indies and the slaughter of their 

' Chantone to Philip, Nov. 20 and 22, 1560, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 
1493 (107), fol. 2b. 

* Letter, 1561, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1495 (i) and Philip to Chantone, 
March 23, 1561, Toledo, MS. ibid., K., 1495 (26). 

^ Letter, April 7, 1561, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1494 (73). 

* Letter, May i, 1561, MS. ibid., K, 1494 (84), forwarding the Report 
dated April 20, 1561, MS. ibid., K, 1494 (80). 

* Letter, Nov. 9, 1561, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1494 (107). 



The Treasure Fleets and Florida 27 

crews continued,' until Chantone, in justifiable indigna- 
tion, writes his King under date of January 13, 1562, 
"with the robberies committed in the route of the Indies 
during the past days, all those of Normandy and Brittany 
are so possessed of greed, that there is not a man of those 
that follow the fleets who does not seek to own a ship or 
to have one built, although they would have to sell their 
inheritance to attain it," and he adds, "that all those who 
were engaged in this matter were heretics, and of those 
regarded with the most favour." * 

' Letter, Aug. ii, 1561, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1495 (62) ; letter, 1560 
or 1561 (?), MS. ibid., K, 1494 (17). 

» Letter, Jan. 13, 1562, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1497 (5). 



CHAPTER II 

THE FIRST FRENCH COLONY 

IN the same letter of January 13, 1562, Chantone, after 
expressing his desperation in the terms just cited, in- 
forms Philip that "the three ships which I wrote Y. M. 
were preparing to sail for Florida have come to be six, 
and a number of people will go in them, and they will 
leave after the close of this month with the first fair 
weather. . . . The said six vessels go under the com- 
mand of Jean Ribaut. ... I will not fail to have a 
word about it with the Queen, although they deny that 
they are bound for those parts, but the thing is very cer- 
tain, and it would be well, if it please Y. M., to mention 
it to Limoges." ' Ten days later he saw Catherine de' 
Medici and handed her a memorandum on the subject, 
which she retained in order to show it to Coligny and to 
answer it by letter, while she assured him at the same 
time that nothing would be done to the detriment of 
Philip's interests." 

A week later Chantone, whose suspicions were thor- 
oughly aroused, wrote Philip that an effort was being 
made to obtain the pardon of a certain Portuguese pirate, 
who had been implicated in robberies of the India fleet, 

' Letter, Jan. 13, 1562, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1497 (5). " Limoges " 
was Sebastien de I'Aubespine, Bishop of Limoges, French Ambassador to 
Spain at the time. 

'Chantone to Philip IL, Jan. 23, 1562, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1497 (6). 

28 



' , ■ ."^^s-^^v^ V 




















\^ 




?ID/E AMERICAN/E PROVINCI/E RECENS & EXACTISSIMA DESCRIPTIO," BY JACQUES LE MOYNE 




'fLORID/C AMERICAN/E PROVINCI/t RECENS i EXACTISSIMA DESCRIPTIO," BY JACQUES LE MOYNE DE MORGUES, PUBLISHED BY DE BRV IN 1591. 



The First French Colony 29 

in order that he might accompany the vessels destined for 
Florida ; that he had complained about it to the Queen ; 
that she professed to know nothing about the matter, but 
would inform herself; that it was evident from her written 
answer that the expedition was fully determined upon, 
and that a Spaniard had been secretly conveyed by night 
to the Admiral's apartment, and was secretly brought 
back, with the object, as Chantone surmises, of giving 
information about the Florida coast, or of acting as agent 
for the Spanish heretics.' Philip at once referred the 
letter to the Council of the Indies for their consideration, 
urging haste in the matter of the ships bound for Florida, 
concerning which he asked for their advice, whether it 
were best to take some immediate action or to await 
further developments/ 

The decadence of France at about this period was most 
profound. Within her own bosom she was torn asun- 
der by civil war arising from religious intolerance. Her 
armies had almost disappeared, her navy had lost its for- 
mer glory, and she was deserted by her allies. Gaspard 
de Coligny, lord of Chatillon-sur-Loing and Admiral of 
France, a staunch patriot, a brave soldier, and an earnest 
Huguenot, had dreamed of restoring her to her lost great- 
ness. In pursuit of this object his eyes turned longingly 
to Spain's transatlantic possessions, and he thought that 
by depriving her of those he could hope to weaken her 
world supremacy, for he hated her both as a Frenchman, 
with whom she had been almost continually at war, and 
as a Protestant, against whose religion she was persistently 
intriguing. As early as 1555 he had sent to Brazil the 
unsuccessful expedition of Villegaignon already referred 
to. Undismayed by this failure, he determined to re- 
new his enterprise, and in 1561 called for a gathering of 

' Letter, Jan. 30, 1562, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1497 (7). 
2 Endorsement in the King's hand on the letter of Jan. 30, 1562, MS. 
Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1497 (7). 



30 The Spanish Settlements 

volunteers, at Havre, without respect to religion, and an- 
nounced that an expedition would soon sail from thence 
for Florida.' 

On the i6th of February, 1562, the expedition set out.' 
The fleet consisted of two Dutch three-masters, small 
vessels of one hundred and seventeen and sixty tons re- 
spectively,' and a large sloop, besides two smaller ones 
which were carried aboard the large vessels while at sea." 
It was commanded by Jean Ribaut of Dieppe, a skilful 
sailor, a devout Protestant, and a man of some diplo- 
matic experience, for in 1559 he had been sent to Scot- 
land in the French interests, where he had fulfilled his 
mission with credit to himself. His lieutenant character- 
ised him as perhaps a little obstinate in his opinions with 
"deuises of his owne braine, which sometimes hee printed 
in his head so deeply, that it was very hard to put them 
out." ^ Of his entire crew of one hundred and fifty men, 
half of them were arquebusiers, and for the most part old 

' Histoire de la Floride Fran^aise par Paul Gaffarel, Paris, 1875, pp. 1-9. 

'^ Histoire notable de la Floride situee es Indes Occidentales contenant les 
trois voyages faicts en icelle par certains Capitaines et Pilotes Francois 
descrits par le Capitaine Laudonniere qui y a commande I'espace d'un an 
trois moys, Paris, 1586 ; sec. xv., reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 
354. This French version is usually known by the name of its editor.Bas- 
anier. English version entitled "A notable historic containing foure voyages 
made by certaine French Captaines into Florida : Wherein the great riches 
and fruitefulnesse of the Countrey with the maners of the people hitherto 
concealed are brought to light, written all, sauing the last, by Monsieur 
Laudonniere, who remained there himselfe as the French King's Lieutenant 
a yeere and a quarter. Translated out of French into English by M. 
Richard Haklvyt." In Voyages of the English Nation to Atnerica, collected 
by Richard Hakluyt and edited by Edmund Goldsmith, Edinburgh, 1889, 
vol. ii., p. 417. 

* Relacion e informacion de los Franceses que han ido a poblar en la costa 
de la Florida. San Cristobal de la Habana, 9 julio, 1564 ; MS. Arch. 
Gen. de Lidias, Sevilla, est., 54, caj. i, leg. 15, pp. 18, 19; Gaffarel, Hist, 
de la Floride, p. 14. 

^Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Paris, 161 1, p. 42. 

'"A Notable Historic," /^a*^., vol. ii., p. 523; Basanier, p. 114; Gaf- 
farel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 13. 



The First French Colony 31 

soldiers. There was also an Englishman in the party, 
and several gentlemen, one of whom, Rene de Laudon- 
niere, was destined to play an important part in subse- 
quent events.' The pilot was a Portuguese "than whom 
there was none more competent to show them the way," 
writes Chantone/ As most of the men were Calvinists 
a preacher accompanied them. The vessels carried 
twenty-five pieces of artillery all of bronze,^ and were well 
equipped with ammunition and supplies for a long 
period. Chantone, who had ample means of informing 
himself, writes his King that besides Coligny, who was 
obviously the soul of the enterprise,* the Queen Mother, 
Vendome,^ the Prince of Cond^,° and Madame de Cursot ' 
had contributed to the enterprise. Among the crew 
itself the rumour ran that the Queen and Vendome had 
each of them given a thousand ducats, and that the fleet 
was bound directly for Florida, to settle at Santa Elena, 
and to learn if it was a good location from which to enter 
the Bahama Channel in order to seize the fleet of the 
Indies.' 

Although it was too late to run any danger of encoun- 

' Basanier, Histoire Notable, Paris, 1586, p. 8 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 417. 

* Chantone to Philip II., Jan. 24, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1500 
(43), written after the return of the survivors of the expedition. The Re- 
lacidn e informacidn de los Franceses, etc., p. 20, says there was also a 
Spanish pilot named Bartholomew, from Seville. 

^ Relacidn e informacidn de los Franceses, etc., pp. 14-19. 

* Chantone to Philip II., Jan. 24, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1500 
(43). 

^ Antoine de Bourbon, of the Vendome branch of the Bourbon family. 

•* Louis I., Prince of Conde and brother of Antoine de Bourbon. 

' Spelled " Corosot " in the MS. of the Navarrete Collection, and probably 
intended for Madame de Cursol, who became Duchess of Uzais, and whose 
name is mentioned by Brantome among those of the court ladies of 
Catherine de' Medici. 

* Relacidn e informacidn de los Franceses, etc., p. 19 ; see the opinion of 
the Venetian ambassador, written in 1573, as to the quality of the French 
colonists and the object Ribaut had in view (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
i., p. cxl., footnote). 



32 The Spanish Settlements 

taring the outgoing Spanish fleet, and too early for the 
returning one, Ribaut, anxious to escape the observation 
of the Spaniards and conceal from them his exact desti- 
nation, pursued an unfrequented course, by which he 
avoided the Canaries and the Azores, the customary 
route of the Armada.' He cut across the current of the 
Gulf Stream, and in place of making the coast of Canada, 
where France was now in undisputed possession, struck 
the eastern shore of Florida in 29° 30' north latitude on 
April 30th, off a headland which he called French Cape, 
and which was perhaps a little above the present site of 
St. Augustine.'^ He had taken two months and a half to 
cross the Atlantic and during his prolonged trip had met 

' "The true and last discoverie of Florida by Captain John Ribaut," 
reprint in Hist. Collections of Louisiana and Florida, by B. F. French ; 
2d series, " Historical Memoirs and Narratives," 1 527-1702, New York, 
1875, chap. 1., p. 166; Basanier, Hist. Notable, p. 8; Hak., vol. ii., p. 
417 ; Gafifarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 14. Ribaut's first English account 
appeared under the title: "The whole and true Discoverye of Terra 
Florida (Englished, The Flourishing Land), conteyning as well the wonder- 
ful straunge Natures and Manners of the People, with the merveylous Com- 
modities and Treasures of the Country ; as also the pleasant Fortes and 
Havens and Wayes thereunto, never found out before the last year, 1562. 
Written in French, by Captain Ribauld, the fyrst that whoUye discovered 
the same, and now newly set forthe in Englishe, the XXX. of May, 1563." 
This was first printed by Hakluyt in his small black-letter volume of 1583, 
but not in the folio collection, under the title of " The True and Last Dis- 
coverie of Florida, translated into Englishe by one Thomas Hackit." The 
P'rench version, entitled " Historic de I'expedition Fran9aise en Floride," 
■was published by Ribaut in London, in 1563 ; Shea in II., Narr. and Crit. 
Hist. Am., p. 293 ; Brinton in Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, p. 28. 

^ " The true and last discoverie of Florida," reprint, ibid., p. 169 ; Laudon- 
niere (Basanier, Hist. Notable, p. 8 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 417) and Le Moyne 
{Brevis Narr alio, Plate I.) say 30°. Laudonniere (Basanier, p. 36 ; Hak., 
vol. ii., p. 445) says that the second expedition landed " neere a little riuer, 
which is 30 degrees distant from the Equator, and 10 degrees aboue Cape 
Fran9ois drawing towords the South, and aboue 30 leagues aboue the Riuer 
of May." This he named the River of Dolphins. The marginal note to 
the above paragraph is : " Cape Fran9ois between the riuer of Dolphins and 
the Riuer of May, maketh the distance 30 leagues about which is but 10 
leagues ouer land." Gaffarel in his Hist, de la Floride, p. 15, places the 



The First French Colony ss 

with but one vessel, a Spaniard returning from the Indies, 
which he encountered off the Bermudas.* Coasting north 
Ribaut struck the St. John's River, which he named the 
River of May, having discovered it on the first of that 
month. ^ He remained there the following day, entered 
into friendly relations with the Indians, and erected on a 

landfall " at the point of land north of the City of St. Augustine." Tke 
Territory of Florida, by John Lee Williams, New York, 1837, p. i6g, 
places the landfall " about the latitude of St. Augustine." Guillermo Rufin, 
in Relacidn e informacidn de los Franceses, etc., p. 20, says : " La primera 
tierra della que vieron oyo dezir al piloto que hera el cave de la florida 
junto a la canal de bahama." Parkman in his Pioneers of France in the 
New World, Boston, 1893, p. 36, says it was probably one of the headlands 
of Matanzas Inlet. 

' Relacidn e informacio'n de los Franceses, etc., p. 20. 

"^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 10; Hak., vol. ii., p. 419; Le Moyne, 
" Eicones" in Brevis Narratio, Plate II. " Copie d'vne lettre venant de 
la Floride, enuoyee a Rouen, et depuis au seigneur d'Eueron ; ensemble le 
plan et portraict du fort que les Franfois y ont faict." A Paris, pour Vin- 
cent Norment et leanne Bruneau, en la rue Neufue-Nostre-Dame, a I'lmage 
Sainct-Iean I'Euangeliste, 1565 ; reprint in Recueil de Pieces sur la Floride, 
par H. Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1841, p. 238. In Laudonniere's account 
{Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 8 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 417) the first place discov- 
ered beyond the landfall is " a very faire and great Riuer " where Ribaut 
sets up the pillar on which " the Arms of France were earned and engraued. 
This being done hee embarked himself againe, to the ende always to dis- 
couer the coast toword the North which was his chiefe desire. After he 
had sayled a certaine time he crossed ouer to the other side of the riuer," 
evidently of the river already mentioned, where he is entertained by the 
Indians. It is evident from the context here and from the location of Cape 
Francois, mentioned in the preceding note, that the River of May was the 
first river visited by Ribaut according to this account. In Laudonniere's 
history of the second expedition {Basanier, pp. 36, 37 ; Hak., vol., ii., p. 
445) he describes the River of Dolphins, but makes no reference to having 
previously visited it with Ribaut. Le Moyne, who was not with Ribaut on 
the first expedition, appears to have confused the two accounts. In Plate 
I., after having described Cape Franfois in " about thirty degrees from the 
equator," he continues : "Coasting thence to the northward, they (Ribaut 
and his companions) discovered a broad and beautiful river, at whose mouth 
they cast anchor in order to examine it more in detail next day. Laudon- 
niere, in this second voyage, called this stream the River of Dolphins," etc. 
See Appendix B, The River of May. 



34 The Spanish Settlements 

sand-hill near the mouth of the river a stone column, on 
which were engraved the French arms, the date, and the 
name of the commander of the expedition.' 

Continuing his discoveries along the coast to the north, 
Ribaut passed nine rivers in a distance of sixty leagues, 
to which were given familiar names of the rivers of his 
own country: the Seine, the Somme, the Loire, the Cha- 
rente, -the Garonne, the Gironde, the Belle, and the 
Grande. Their identity it is now well-nigh impossible to 
determine, as the names given them by Ribaut "were 
altered by the Spaniards in their geographical tables ; and 
if some be found where the names are given, we owe it 
to the Hollanders," complains Lescarbot.^ Ribaut had 
evidently some acquaintance with Spain's discoveries in 
North America, for in a parley with the natives on the 
St. John's River, he inferred from their signs that he was 
but twenty days distant by water from Cibola and its 
great treasure.^ In the hope of a still more promising 
harbour than any he had yet found he determined to seek 
for the "River Jordan," "one of the fairest of all the 
North," writes Laudonniere." 

Following the coast to the north he came at last upon 
a great river, three leagues wide at its mouth, and into 
which at flood tide the largest of French ships could 
enter, which he named Port Royal, and sailing three 
leagues up the stream, he anchored his vessels. Ribaut 
thought it was the River Jordan ' and Parkman identifies 

' See Appendix C, The Pillar Set up by Ribaut. 

^ Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle Frattce, Paris, i6ir, sec. v., p. 45 ; 
Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 10; Hak., vol. ii., p. 420; Gaffarel, p. 18. And 
see Appendix D, The Rivers between the River of May and Port Royal. 

^ " The true and last discoverie," etc.; Hist. Col. Louisiana and Florida, 
pp. 174-175- 

* Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. it ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 420. 

* "The true and last discoverie," etc., Hist. Col. Louisiana and Florida, 
p. 185 ; Laudonniere in Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 12, 16 ; LLak., vol. ii., 
pp. 421, 425, thought the Jordan was more to the north. 



CARTE DES COSTES DE LA FLORIDE 
FRAN9OISE 

Echelle ae Lieues communes de France dc 25 au Dee. 




MAP OF THE FRENCH FLORIDA COLONY OF 1562-65, BY NICOLAS BELLIN, IN " HISTOIRE ET DE- 
SCRIPTION QENERALE DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE," PAR LE P. DE CHARLEVOIX, PARIS,1744. 



The First French Colony 35 

it with the Broad River.' Ribaut, who was soon on a 
friendly footing with the savages, explored for some dis- 
tance its lower affluents, erected another column to indi- 
cate that the country was a French possession, and finally 
gathering his people together, made them an address in 
which he recalled to their memory the importance ta 
their young King of the enterprise upon which they had 
all embarked, and asked for volunteers to remain behind 
and hold Port Royal for their sovereign. Most of the 
soldiers eagerly offered their services for the new colony. 
Of these he selected twenty-eight,^ appointed as their 
captain a certain Albert or Aubert de la Pierria, and con- 
structed for them on a little creek, which he named 
Chenonceau, a house of logs and clay, thatched with 
straw, and surrounded with a bulwark for its defence. 
He armed it with eight pieces of artillery, stored it with 
ammunition and provisions for several months, and named 
it Charlesfort, after his King.' 

On June nth, Ribaut took leave of his colony, which 
saluted his departure with a salvo of artillery, and sailed 
away for France, having promised to return within six 
months with more ships and supplies. Ribaut carried 
away with him a few pearls, a little silver which a sailor 
had "rescued" from the natives lower down the coast, 
some deer-skins, and native mantles as evidences of his 
discoveries,* and on July 20, 1562, arrived safely in 

' Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 39 ; and see Appendix E, 
Port Royal. 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 20, says twenty-eight ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 429, 
says twenty-six ; Chantone, letter, Jan. 24, 1563, says there were twenty-five 
men ; Rufin, in the Relacidn e inforviacidn de los Franceses , etc., p. 21, 
says there were twenty-six men. 

'Chantone to Philip II,, Jan. 24, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1500 
(43); also a copy in Direc. Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo xxi., 
doc. No. 8r ; RelaciSn e informacidn de los Franceses, etc., p. 21, and see 
Appendix F, Charlesfort. 

* Relacidn e informacidn de los Franceses, etc., pp. 21, 23. 



36 The Spanish Settlements 

France, "having reconnoitred in six weeks more than ttie 
Spaniards had done in two years, ' ' observes Laudonniere. ' 
' He had reached home at a most unpropitious moment 
for the future of his Httle colony. Civil war, fomented 
by England and Spain, each ostensibly in the interest of 
religion, was raging between the Catholic and Huguenot 
parties, and the unity of his country was in imminent 
danger.^ Coligny, the original promoter of the colonial 
scheme, was immersed in the fratricidal struggle, and 
could give Ribaut and his enterprise but passing atten- 
tion, and so the settlement at Charlesfort was left to its 
fate. Ribautjis said to have taken an active part in the 
war^ and at the conclusion of the peace of Amboise, 
which was signed in March, 1563, betook himself to Eng- 
land, where in the summer of the same year he published 
the results of his Florida expedition,] 

Ribaut, however, did not confine himself to the arts 
of peace alone, for the experience and knowledge he had 
acquired in Florida were more than sufficient to secure 
him a ready admission into the circle of adventurers who 
were just beginning to display their activity and to lay 
the foundations of the English navy. It is evident that 
he was in no wise discouraged by CoHgny's failure for the 
time being to assist the colony in Florida and was seek- 
ing eagerly about him for resources to further the enter- 
prise. Through what channel his presence in England 
became known to Queen Elizabeth we have no present 
means of knowing, but he had probably been but a short 
time in the country before he obtained an audience with 
the Queen. Ribaut set before her the importance and 
wealth of Florida and urged her to assist him in its con- 
quest. Elizabeth, after listening to his relation, began 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 21 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 430. 
^ Ibid., p. 32 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 441 ; Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 26. 
^ Haag, La France protestante, Paris, 1861, vol. viii., p. 313, cited by 
Gaffarel, p. 27. 



The First French Colony 37 

to refuse him her immediate help "so that if PhiHp should 
complain she would be able to swear that nothing had 
been done by her order " ; however, she encouraged Ribaut 
to undertake the adventure himself, promised him half 
of all that he found, and added that even were the coun- 
try not as good as she had been told, it was on the way 
of the ships from New Spain, Peru, and elsewhere, which 
Ribaut could safely seize.' But the temptation proved 
to be too great to be long withstood, even by Elizabeth's 
tender conscience, and she ended by offering him a 
pension of three hundred ducats and a house as an in- 
ducement to undertake the discovery. At a later period, 
when the incident was closed, Ribaut disclaimed ever 
having accepted the bribe.'^ 

However this may be, it appears that in May, 1563, the 
notorious Thomas Stukeley was arming a fleet consisting 
of five vessels, one of which had been contributed by 
Ribaut and another by Elizabeth. The crew was three 
hundred strong, and the fleet, which was well equipped 
with supplies, ammunition, and artillery, flew the royal 
standard presented by the Queen herself.' There were 
three French pilots aboard, who had previously accom- 
panied Ribaut to Florida. Quadra, Philip's ambassador 
in London, was himself inclined to attach some credit to 
the current rumour that it was designed to attack Florida, 

' Silva relates this on the authority of Stukeley ; see Guzman de Silva to 
PhiHp II., London, Oct. 22, 1565, in Correspondencia de Felipe II., con sus 
Embajadores en la Corte de Inglaterra, 1558-15S4, tomo ii., p. 214; Eng- 
lish translation in Spanish State Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, p. 495, 

'Quadra to Philip II., London, June 26, 1563, Correspondencia de Felipe 
II., tomo i., p. 527 ; see also Guzman de Silva to Philip II., London, 
March 30, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 292. English translation in Spanish 
State Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, p. 536. This account of Ribaut's 
experience in England has been previously printed by the author in the 
American Historical Review, vol. ix., p. 456, April, 1904, under the title 
of "Jean Ribaut and Queen Elizabeth." 

^Quadra to Philip II., London, June ig, 1563, Correspondencia de Felipe 
II., tomo i., p. 525. 



38 The Spanish Settlements 

but it was also said that its object was to assail the Span- 
ish vessels returning from the Indies.' 

Stukeley, who had sought and obtained an interview 
with the ambassador, gave Quadra to understand that he 
was urged on in the undertaking by the Government, but 
notwithstanding this assurance Quadra was indisposed to 
trust his revelations. Stukeley then became most pro- 
fuse in his protestations of friendship for Spain, telling 
Quadra that he was leaving England dissatisfied and de- 
sperate, but with the intention of going into the service 
of Philip ; that he had risked all of his property in the 
enterprise, and he requested Quadra that on his arrival in 
any Spanish port or elsewhere in Spanish possessions he 
should be recognised as a servant of the King. Quadra 
met his advance with caution, and replied that the thing 
was impossible in view of the friendly relations existing 
between England and Spain, unless his destination were 
for parts not included within the Spanish lines of demark- 
ation. And at last the true object of the expedition 
became apparent, as well as the importance of the part 
which Ribaut was expected to play, for Stukeley answered 
that no one had visited the country where he was going 
except a few Frenchmen a short time before, and that 
it was but three days distant from Cuba. Quadra then 
told him roundly that in such case the thing was an 
impossibility, because the land fell within the lines of 
demarkation. 

Quadra's suspicions had been in no way allayed by 
Stukeley's apparent frankness, which he regarded merely 
as a cunning device on his part for safeguarding the ex- 
pedition from Spanish attack. In the letter relating these 
circumstances, which he wrote to his King, he expressed 
his opinion that the enterprise was really due to French 

'Quadra to Philip II., London, May i, 1563, ibid., tomo i., p. 512. 
English translation in Spanish Slate Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, p. 
322. 



The First French Colony 39 

as well as English intrigue, adding: "I have no assurance 
that he carries a commission ; it seems to me that his pro- 
ject is a result of the determination . . . reached by 
the Admiral of France [Coligny] and of those who govern 
here to harass that commerce [of the Indies] and to con- 
quer Your Majesty on the Ocean Sea." "I expect to 
talk about it to the Queen," he continues, "although I 
know what answer she will make me, which is the same 
answer she has given me on former occasions, and which 
she has also written me." ' A week later Quadra wrote 
that the fleet was not only destined for Florida, but for 
the very spot where Ribaut had founded his colony, and 
that Ribaut had promised to turn over to Stukeley the 
fort he had built there, together with its small garrison." 
The affair was brought to a sudden and most unexpected 
termination, so far as Ribaut was concerned, by the dis- 
covery that he and the three French pilots had planned to 
escape to France with the ships and hostages. The out- 
come of it was that Ribaut was seized, thrown into prison, 
and threatened with hanging, while the three pilots were 
put into chains and kept to conduct Stukeley's fleet.' 

In the light of contemporary events it is permissible to 
doubt if Ribaut had at any time intended to betray the 
Florida colony into English hands. Havre was still occu- 
pied by the English, and only on the 29th of July of this 
very year, 1563, was it finally returned to France after 
fierce fighting under its walls and after the plague had 
decimated its English garrison ; while Calais, which Eliza- 
beth was most anxious to recover was still held by the 
French. Ribaut was a brave, cool, and determined man, 
as subsequent events fully proved, and, moreover, he was 

1 Quadra to Philip II., London, June ig. 1563, Correspondencia de Felipe 
II., tomo i., p. 524 et seg. English translation in Spanish State Papers, 
1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, p. 334. 

-Ibid., June 26, 1563, Correspondencia de Felipe II., tomo i., p. 531. 

^ Ibid., June 26, 1563, ibid., tomo i,, p. 527. 



40 The Spanish Settlements 

a Frenchman, which means that he loved his native soil 
with the devotion that pre-eminently distinguishes his 
race and which has made of it the most home-loving of 
people. This dramatic incident in his career occupied 
less than two months, and it may well be supposed that 
the hardy Dieppois, who, like the French of to-day, 
probably looked upon all foreigners as outside barbarians, 
was not at all averse to practising a clever trick on 
Stukeley and his English Queen, and had entered into 
his engagements at the very outset with this end in view. 
The Frenchmen left behind at Charlesfort at once 
turned their attention to completing their defences, work- 
ing day and night upon them, and then began roaming 
about the rivers and swamps and forests, visiting the 
chiefs of the neighbouring Indian villages. Like some of 
their Spanish predecessors they appear to have mistaken 
the names of localities or tribes for those of individuals; 
for among those whom they visited we hear of one called 
Audusta, whose country Captain Albert reached by water.' 
It is not impossible that we have here a chief of the 
Edisto Indians, whose name under another form, that of 
Orixa, Ayllon's Indian Chicora had rattled off so glibly 
among those of other South Carolina provinces.* Lau- 
donni^re himself, shortly before Ribaut's departure, had 
been beguiled with tales of Chiquola, the greatest lord of 
that region, a foot and a half taller than any of his sub- 
jects, and his memory promptly reverted to the Chiquora 
of Ayllon, and perhaps the legend of the giant race ; but 
the story which the Indians told him of Chiquola's great 
city lying to the northward, swarming with men, and 
where gold, silver, and pearls were in such abundance as 
to be of no account whatever, did not kindle his imagina- 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 2i, 22 ; Ilak., vol. ii., p. 431. 

* See Mr. James Mooney's identification of Audusta with the Edisto. 
in The Spanish Setilernents in the United States, 1513-1561, Woodbury 
Lowery, p. 452. 



The First French Colony 41 

tion to the point of inducing either him or his companions 
to visit it.' It seems not at all improbable that the 
Frenchmen were now treading the country reached by 
Ayllon's abortive first expedition in 1520. 

In blissful ignorance of their impending doom, and of 
the internal dissensions which were raging in their country 
at home, the colonists planted no maize, perhaps because 
it was already too late in the season, and took no precau- 
tions against the non-arrival of the expected relief from 
France. Like thoughtless profligates, they followed the 
example of the Spaniards before them and lived on the 
bounty of their Indian friends, who generously supplied 
them with maize and beans and squashes as long as their 
own stores lasted. 

On the return of the colonists from a reconnoitring 
expedition up the River Belle, and while they were peace- 
fully asleep under their thatched roof, a fire broke out at 
Charlesfort, which consumed nearly all their possessions. 
The loss of their shelter was soon made good. Then 
their food supplies began to diminish and again the na- 
tives came to their rescue. At last internal dissensions 
broke out among them. A drummer was hung by Cap- 
tain Albert for a very insufficient reason, according to the 
colonists. Another soldier named Lachere was for some 
unknown cause exiled to a neighbouring island, where he 
was left to die of hunger, although the Captain had 
promised to keep him supplied with provisions."" Finally 
the soldiers, seeing the violence of their Captain con- 
stantly on the increase, and fearing for their own lives, 
rose against him and killed him,' 

Cupidity prompted by the hope of a speedy return to 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 15, 16 ; JIak., vol. ii., p. 425. 

'Ibid., pp. 26, 27, 29 ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 436, 438. 

^ Guillaume Rufin, the sailor left behind by these colonists, says that a 
soldier, whom Albert had beaten, killed him with a sword. Relacidn e in- 
formacidn de los Franceses, etc., p. 21. 



V 



42 The Spanish Settlements 

France may also have furnished a motive for getting rid of 
Albert. Several years later M. de Fourquevaux, the 
French ambassador in Spain, wrote Charles IX. that a 
Spaniard was on his way to Florida to discover a treasure 
of some four hundred thousand ducats, said to have been 
hidden there by six of the soldiers in Ribaut's first expe- 
dition. While roaming about the country they had come 
upon a party of twenty Indians, who, in fear of the 
French, were flying from the neighbourhood, and were 
carrying along with them great lumps of gold and silver 
stamped with the mark of the Spanish mint, which they 
had gathered from the wreckage of vessels along the coast. 
The soldiers, having possessed themselves of the treasure, 
buried it in the earth, and bound themselves by oath not 
to reveal its hiding-place either to their Captain or to any 
other person.' 

Having made away with their commander, the soldiers 
rescued the starving Lachfere from his island, and elected 
another captain, one Nicolas Barre, who proved himself 
an efficient leader, quieting the dissensions and restoring 
peace among them. As the days sped by and the prom- 
ised reinforcements did not arrive, their eyes turned long- 
ingly to France, and the desire to escape from their dreary 
exile grew upon them. There was not a man of the party 
who was familiar with the building of a ship, but despera- 
tion lent them daring, and with the aid of the forge left 
them by Ribaut they began the construction of a small 
vessel of about twenty tons. They caulked the seams 
with grey moss gathered from the forest trees and with 
pitch collected from incisions made in the pines. Sails 
were manufactured from shirts and bed coverings. The 
Indians, glad to be rid of them, furnished them with 
ropes and cordage twisted from the bark of trees. They 

' Advis d'Espaigne au Roy par le s'' de Fourquevaulx. Aout, 1567. />/- 
piches de M. de Fourquevaux, ambassadeur du Roi Charles IX. en Espagne, 
JS(>5-fS72, publiees par M. I'Abbe Douais, Paris, 1896, p. 263. 



The First French Colony 43 

next loaded the boat with the guns which had been left 
for their defence, the forge, and what ammunition re- 
mained to them, stored it to the best of their ability with 
provisions obtained from the Indians, and in their eager- 
ness to depart, set sail for France without thought of the 
fickleness of the winds, the meagreness of their supplies, 
or the fact that there was not a member of their party 
who understood the art of navigation.' 

They had barely travelled one-third of the distance 
which separated them from their homes, when they were 
overtaken by calms so prolonged that in three weeks 
they made but twenty-five leagues. In the meantime 
their provisions began to fail them, and their rations were 
cut down to twelve grains of corn a day. Finally even 
this slender sustenance was exhausted and death by starv- 
ation and thirst stared them in the face. The miserable 
Frenchmen were now reduced to eating their leather 
shoes and jerkins, and to slaking their parched throats 
with the waters of the surrounding sea and their own 
urine. In this extremity their frail vessel began to leak 
at every seam, and in their enfeebled condition they were 
compelled to keep bailing it continually to escape being 
devoured by the sea. Then a contrary wind arose and 
threatened to swamp them. Some of their number died 
of hunger, and at last, having gone for three days without 
food or drink, but one supreme expedient remained, and 
the unfortunate Lachere, who had barely escaped with 
his life from starving to death on the island near Charles- 
fort, was sacrificed to furnish food for his perishing com- 
panions." At last land was discovered, and, driven crazy 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 29, 30; Hak., vol. ii., p. 439 ; RelaciSn e 
inforniacidn de los Franceses, etc., p, 22. 

* Meleneche, in his deposition, says that two members of the party suf- 
fered the same fate. " Carta escrita al Rey, por Juan Rodriguez de Noriega, 
fecha en Sevilla a 29 de Marzo de 1565 sobre lo que convenia proveherse en 
el remedio de la nueba poblacion que hicieron franceses en la Florida," etc., 
MS. Direc. de Hidrog, Madrid, Col, Navarrete, tomo xiv.. No. 33, fol. 3. 



44 The Spanish Settlements 

by the sight, they allowed their boat to drift hither and 
thither upon the sea without an effort to reach it. In 
this pitiable condition they were spied by an English 
vessel on board of which was one of their own country- 
men, who, in a preceding voyage, had himself visited 
New France, and through his instrumentality the sur- 
vivors were rescued. 

As the peace of Troyes was not yet signed, and Eng- 
land and France were still at war, part of the survivors 
were put ashore at Corunna, where they were allowed to 
go free ; but the leaders were carried away to England. 
Some of them managed to escape to France, but their 
trials were not at an end, for it would appear that certain 
of their number were ultimately seized and thrown into 
prison for the murder of Captain Albert.' Such was the 
miserable ending of the first attempt of France to plant 
a colony on Spanish soil in the immediate neighbourhood 
of the pathway of the West India treasure fleets. 

Philip meanwhile did not relax his efforts to secure 
from Catherine some definite reply concerning Ribaut's 
Florida expedition, and only two months after its sailing 
Chantone wrote him that, as the Queen still delayed her 
answer, he had advised her categorically that his master 
"would adopt measures for getting possession of those 
who had gone there in order to chastise them." ^ 

With the opening of the following year (1563) Chan- 
tone sent Philip full and accurate details of the force 
Ribaut had left in Florida, of the places where the col- 
umns had been set up to denote French possessions,^ and 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 30 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 440 et scq. Deposition 
of Meleneche in letter of Noriega to Philip II., MS. Direc. de Hidrog., 
Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv., No. 33, fol. 3. 

2 Chantone to Philip II., May 7, 1562, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1497 

(29). 

3 Chantone to Philip II., Jan. 9, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris. K, 1499 
(7), and Jan. 24, 1563, MS. ibid., K, 1500 (43). It is interesting to observe 
that in his letter of Jan. 24, 1563, Chantone gives the Spa7iish names of the 



The First French Colony 45 

of the high personages who were interested in the under- 
taking. On the receipt of Chantone's letter the King 
promptly proceeded to have the question of safeguarding 
his Florida territory properly discussed' and to take advice 
as to the best means of fortifying the Florida coast, and 
of "expelling the French who had gone to settle there, 
and to avoid the robberies to which the fleets and single 
vessels coming from the Indies were exposed by the near- 
ness of such settlements."^ A royal cedula was also 
dispatched to Don Diego Mazariegos, the Governor of 
Cuba, giving him the information contained in Chantone's 
letter, and directing that a vessel should be sent along the 
Florida coast, to remove and destroy the columns Ribaut 
had erected, to visit Santa Elena where the French had 
settled, and if, after a careful reconnaissance, circumstances 
should seem to justify it, to expel the settlers, destroy 
the fort, and bring all of the artillery, with what prisoners 
might be taken, to Cuba. 

In the latter half of May, 1564, Don Hernando de 
Manrique de Rojas, commander of the expedition, set 
sail in the frigate Nucstra Seiiora de la Concepcion with 
a company of twenty-five men to carry out the above 
orders. He struck the Florida coast below Cape Can- 
localities visited by Ribaut in Florida. As Chantone must have obtained 
his information from French sources, it would seem to indicate that the 
French had used Spanish charts, as well as having a Portuguese or Spanish 
pilot with them, and were therefore fully aware of having entered on terri- 
tory previously discovered by Spain. It is also possible that Chantone, or 
some one for him, had identified the French names given by Ribaut and 
Laudonniere with those on a Spanish chart. The remarkable feature is 
that the identification was sufficiently correct to enable at least one of the 
localities to be found. 

'Philip II. to Chantone, Feb. 14, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1499 

(17). 

* " Memorial de Pero Menendez de Aviles respecto a las medidas que seria 
conveniente tomar para la segura posesion de la Florida y evitar que los 
franceses e ingleses pudieran causar perturbacion en aquellos dominios." 
Undated [Feb. --July, 1562?] ; in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 320. 



4^ The Spanish Settlements 

averal in 27° 30'. Sailing only by day, and as near as 
possible to the shore, he reached the Rio de la Cruz, in 
29°, probably Mosquito River, on the 22nd of the month 
and searched the neighbouring shores for the French 
pillars in conformity with his instructions; but he found 
nothing whatever, and being without an interpreter, he 
could learn nothing from the Indians. The same experi- 
ence was repeated at Matanzas Inlet in 29° 30', where he 
arrived on the 25th. On the 26th he was in the Rio de las 
Corrientes, probably the mouth of the St. John's River, 
and though no pillar was found,' he learned from the 
natives that three vessels manned by Christians had been 
there and had left for the Cape of Santa Elena to the 
north. The discovery of a wooden box and other ob- 
jects of Christian make in the hands of the Indians along 
the river confirmed Manrique in the belief that he was at 
last on the right track. May 29th he left the Rio de las 
Corrientes, and on the last day of the month entered the 
river of Santa Elena in latitude 32°. Both the northern 
and southern shores were thickly settled with native vil- 
lages, the Indians indicating by signs as many as seven- 
teen communities, among them a town on the southern 
bank named Yanahume, and another called Guale on a 
stream on the north bank of the Santa Elena. Both of 
these he visited, and in Guale he again found indications 
of the presence of white men who wore beards, but who 
had gone farther to the north, according to the report of 
the Indians. But he searched in vain for the fort of the 
French settlers. 

Although Manrique had now fully complied with his 
instructions by visiting all of the localities which they 

' B. R. Carroll, in Hist. Col. South Carolina, vol. i., p. xxxiii, note, says : 
"The most indefatigable search has been made to discover this pillar. Dr. 
Holmes (the author of Holmes s Annals), wrote to many of his friends upon 
the subject, but after the most diligent investigation of the subject they 
were none of them able to arrive at anything like certainty." 



The First French Colony 47 

specified, he was so encouraged by the reports gathered 
from the Indians in the two harbours which he had last 
entered, that he determined to push still farther along 
the coast to the north. June 7th he again sailed away, 
and in the course of a few leagues, perhaps twelve or 
fifteen, he visited six different harbours. June nth he 
reached a harbour in 32° 20'. The Indians here informed 
him that a vessel with thirty-four white men aboard had 
been there and sailed away, leaving a member of the com- 
pany behind who was living at the time in a village called 
Usta in the interior. Manrique at once sent him an In- 
dian bearing a wooden cross, to signify that Christians 
had arrived there. The following day the white man 
came down to the ship. He was in Indian dress, and 
proved to be a French lad, seventeen years old, Guillaume 
Rufin by name,' who had come over with Ribaut and 
had been left with the garrison at Charlesfort. A French 
sailor aboard of Manrique's ship served as interpreter, 
through whom Rufin gave a remarkably detailed and 
accurate account of the expedition. He told them that 
the fort and one of the pillars was in 32° 15', according to 
the reckoning of Ribaut's Spanish pilot, and 32° according 
to that of the French, and could be reached by ascending 
the river without going to sea. And he explained that 
he had remained behind, not daring to trust himself in 
the company of the escaping soldiers, knowing their 
ignorance of seamanship. After his examination, Rufin 
was detained aboard the ship to be carried a prisoner to 
Cuba. 

The next day Manrique left his frigate in charge of his 
pilot with strict injunctions to allow none of the crew to 
go ashore during his absence, and ascended the river, 
taking with him a notary to attest the proceedings and 
Rufin to show the way. This time the search was not in 

'See Laudonniere's attempt to find Rufin on his return in 1564, in Hist. 
Notable, Basanier, p. 74 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 4S4. 



48 The Spanish Settlements 

vain. At a distance of three leagues from the harbour 
where Manrique was anchored the party came upon the 
thatched hut which had sheltered the little garrison. It 
was still standing, but empty and deserted, and was situ- 
ated upon a stream which fell into Port Royal Sound. 
The party landed and Manrique gave directions to have 
the frail edifice burnt to the ground, then they re-em- 
barked and went in search of the column. This, too, 
was discovered on a knoll, where Ribaut had erected it. 
It was some distance back in the forest, not far from a 
stream which flowed into the Broad. The column was 
dug up in the presence of the notary and witnesses and 
transported to the frigate. Satisfied that he had fulfilled 
his duty, Manrique set sail on the 1 5th of June for Havana, 
which he reached in good season, taking with him, as evi- 
dence of his success, the Frenchman Rufin, and the vain 
emblem which France had erected to bear witness to her 
supremacy in South Carolina.' 

' Relacion e informacion de los Franceses que han ido a poblar en la 
costa de la Florida, San Cristobal de la Habana, 9 Julio, 1564. MS. Arch. 
Gen. de Indias, Sevilla, est. 54, caj, i, leg, 15. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SECOND FRENCH COLONY — THE TIMUQUANANS 

IN September, 1561, Philip was already of the opinion 
that Florida presented no sufficient inducements 
to justify the founding of a settlement. Menendez de 
Aviles had reported that even the point of Santa Elena 
was not practicable because of the absence of a safe har- 
bour, owing to the strong currents there; and the results 
of Villafafie's reconnaissance in that vicinity had sub- 
stantiated the King's conclusion. He had been informed 
of the poverty of the region in its vicinity and that there 
was no fear that the French would set foot in it, or take 
possession of the country. But before reaching a final 
conclusion he directed his Viceroy of New Spain, Don 
Luis de Velasco, to report to him upon the subject after 
consultation with persons who had had some experience 
in the country. 

In March of the following year, the Council of New 
Spain had reached the same conclusion, after consultation 
with Villafafie and his captains and some of the com- 
panions of Don Tristan de Luna. The country in the 
vicinity of the river of Santa Elena was very low and 
sandy, subject to inundations and uninhabited, the har- 
bour insufficient, and the region was wholly unsuited for 
a colony. To the north of it, as far as Villafafie had 
sailed, the country was quite as inhospitable, neither gold 
nor silver was to be found, and the Council recommended 

**.-4. 49 



50 The Spanish Settlements 

that no steps be taken in that direction until the coast 
had been discovered farther to the north.' Alarming as 
was the report of Ribaut's settlement in the very country 
which the Viceroy had so relentlessly condemned, Chan- 
tone's assurance of its utter failure must have come as a 
relief to the royal mind, and as a final confirmation of 
the correctness of the opinion rendered by the Council 
of New Spain. But disquieting rumours of expeditions 
destined for Florida continued to reach Philip from 
France, and of the continued depredations of the daring 
French pirate, Jacques Le Clerc, surnamed Pie de Palo by 
the Spaniards on account of his wooden leg.* 

In the midst of these contentions for the possession of 
a continent came the last echo of the early discoverers. 
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, son of the Ayllon in whose 
first discovered territory Ribaut had made his abortive 
settlement, asked for an extension of the date set for his 
sailing to settle in Florida, because of the difificulties he 
had encountered in securing colonists for his undertaking. 
Disheartened by his fruitless efforts to organise the expe- 
dition, it is probable that his failure preyed upon his mind 
and he ultimately died of melancholia at Hispaniola.* 

' "Parecer que da a S. M. el Consejo de la Nueva Espana, en virtud de su 
Real Cedula (fecha en Madrid a 23 de Septiembre de 1561) que sigue, sobre 
la forma en que estava la costa de la Florida, y que no convenia aumentar 
la Poblacion." Mexico, a 12 dias del mes de Marzo de 1562 anos. MS. Ma- 
drid, Direc. de Hidrog., Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv., doc. No. 29. There is 
also a copy of the Parecer in Buckingham Smith, North American MSS., 
1561-1393, p. II. 

2 Chantone and Alava to Philip II., Jan, 18, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, 
K, 1500 (4) ; same to same, Feb. 5 and 8, 1563, MS., ibid., K, 1500 (48) ; 
Philip II. to Chantone, Feb. 14, 1563, MS., ibid., K, 1499 (17) ; Chantone 
to Philip II., June 7 (1563?), MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navar- 
rete, tomo xxi., doc. No. 81, fol. 50. 

' Memorial de Lucas Vasquez y Ayllon pidiendo la prorogacion de la 
salida para el descubrimiento de la Florida. (The scrivener's certificate is 
dated " Sevilla doze dias del mes de junio de myll e quinientos e sesenta y 
tres.") MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 
1/19, Ramo 3. Ensayo Cronologico, Ano MDXXV., fol. 9. 



The Second French Colony 51 

The peace of Amboise, and the successful termination 
of the suit against him for complicity in the assassination 
of Francis de Guise, at last set Coligny free to renew 
those aggressions on Spain's West Indian commerce on 
which he had set his heart.' "I seek new means of traffic 
and profit in strange lands," he writes,'' and his attention 
promptly reverted to Florida and his plan for weakening 
Spain across the Atlantic. The result was that a second 
French expedition had been on the Florida coast for 
several days when Manrique de Rojas set sail from Ha- 
vana to drive out the last remnants of Ribaut's colony. 
Indeed if Manrique carried out his instructions as thor- 
oughly as his report would lead us to believe, it is ex- 
traordinary that the Frenchmen should have escaped his 
attention.' He must have passed their settlement at 
some point in his northward coasting, and it is not im- 
probable that the three vessels heard of at the River of 
May may have been their fleet. 

As Ribaut was still languishing in an English prison,* 
Coligny had selected for the commander of the new ven- 
ture Ren6 de Laudonniere, one of Ribaut's companions 
in the first attempt. He, too, was a skilled sailor, but 
he lacked the latter's firmness of character and presence 
of mind, and, notwithstanding his previous experience 
in Florida, he showed so little talent in adapting him- 
self to the new conditions of the colony, that it is to 
his ill-advised policy in dealing with the natives that the 

^Quadra to Philip II., July 15, 1563, Col. Doc. Inedit. Espaiia, tomo 
Ixxxvii., p. 352. 

* Pilces sur VHistoire de France, tome viii., annee 1865 ; quoted by Gaf- 
farel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 46. 

^Laudonniere struck the coast above St. Augustine, June 22, 1564, and 
Manrique de Rojas set sail in May of the same year. 

* Noticias de la poblacion que habian hecho los Franceses en la Florida, 
segun declaracion que dio en Cuba, Stefano de Rojomonte natural de Paris 
(1564). MS. Arch, de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 1/19 ; 
Ramo 14, p. 3. 



52 The Spanish Settlements 

calamity which ultimately overwhelmed it may in part 
be attributed. 

Coligny supplied him with funds with which to equip 
a fleet,' and at Havre de Grace, of which Coligny was 
now governor,' the future colonists, three hundred in 
number,^ assembled. Of these, one hundred and ten were 
sailors, one hundred and twenty soldiers, and the balance 
artisans of every description, besides a number of servants 
for the soldiers, and pages, and four women, one of whom 
went in the capacity of chambermaid and housekeeper to 
Laudonni^re.* There were a few gentlemen, such as 
Ottigny, Erlach, and La Rocheferriere, who went as 
officers and volunteers,^ There were four members of 
the party which had made the disastrous voyage across 
the Atlantic ^ ; there was also an artist named Le Moyne 
de Morgues, to whom we are indebted for one of the re- 
lations and a series of interesting pictures of the country 
and of the natives. And in addition to the sailors there 
were a few foreigners, an apothecary, an artificer, and 
carpenters, "so that I may assert that there came to the 
undertaking of that navigation men greatly expert in all 

■ De Laet, Hist, du Nouveau Monde, Leyde, 1640, liv. iv., chap, x., says 
150,000 francs ; De Thou, Hist. Universelle, Londres, 1734, tome v., p. 
490, says 100,000 francs. Rojomonte in his deposition says the Queen also 
assisted him ; Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., p. i. Meleneche says in his de- 
position : " El autor della fue el Almirante de Francia y el Cardenal Xatil- 
lon, su hermano, aunque al tiempo que la Armada se hacia se dio la voz en 
el Pueblo que la mandaba el Rey hacer." " Relacion del suceso de la Ar- 
mada Francesa que fue a poblar la tierra de la Florida," etc., annexed to 
Noriega's letter to Philip II., March 29, 1565, MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Ma- 
drid, Col. N'avarrete, tomo xiv., doc. No. 33, fol. 4. 

^Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 47. 

3 Hawkins, in his relation in Hakluyt, vol. iv., p. 242, says 200 men ; Ro- 
jomonte in Noticias de la Poblacichi, etc., fol. 4, says 300. 

4 Deposition of Meleneche in Noriega to Philip II., Mar. 29, 1565, fol. 4 ; 
Hist. Notable, Basanier, Paris, 1586, p. 102 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 512. 

6 " Los mas de los soldadas son cavalleros y jente principal," Rojomonte 
in Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., 1564, p. i. 

^Meleneche's deposition in Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., fol. 3. 



The Second French Colony 53 

the arts," says Le Moyne,' Curiously enough, there 
was no clergyman in the party. With that shortsighted- 
ness which seems to have been the bane of all first at- 
tempts at colonization, farmers and field hands were also 
wanting, for it was not to the laborious planting of the 
soil that the colonists looked to increase their wealth, 
but, from the Spanish view, at least, to other and more 
questionable sources. The majority of the adventurers 
were Protestants, but there were some Roman Catholics 
among the number," and it may well be imagined that 
with the recent conclusion of the civil war no small part 
of the various elements which gathered for the enterprise 
consisted of turbulent and unruly men but ill-fitted for 
the peaceful occupation of the soil. 

The fleet consisted of the Isabella, the Little Briton, 
and the Faulcon,^ small vessels of sixty, eighty, and three 
hundred tons,* the largest being a man-of-war. It was 
well armed to resist attack by sea, and to afford protec- 
tion for the future settlement, and two pilots, the one a 
Basque, the other a Portuguese, accompanied it to point 
the way.** Although its destination was Florida, its 
mission was ostensibly not directed against Spanish in- 
terests. " The Queen has charged me very expressly," 
wrote Laudonnifere "to doe no kind of wrong to the 
Kinge of Spaines subjects, nor anything whereof he 
might conceiue any ielousie."* 

' De Bry, Brevis JVarratio, p. 6. 

^ Noriega in his letter to Philip of March 29, 1565, calls them " muy finos 
Luteranos," and makes this statement on the authority of the French 
prisoners. 

^ " Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride, 1565," Recueil de Pieces sur 
la Floride^ p. 234. 

^ Rojomonte says 80, 200, and 300, tons, Noticias de la Foblacidn, etc., 
p. I ; Meleneche says 80, 125, and over 200 tons, the largest being a man- 
of-war, Noriega to Philip II., Mar. 29, 1565, fol. 4. 

^ Alava to Philip II., June 7, 1564, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1501 (85). 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 64 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 474. 



54 The Spanish Settlements 

The colonists set sail April 22, 1564/ and after an ad- 
venture off the English coast, in which they mistook a 
Flemish fleet for a band of English sea-robbers,'' they 
turned south, made the Canaries and after cruising among 
the Bahama Islands struck the low-lying Florida coast on 
Thursday, June 22,' in the neighbourhood of St. Augus- 
tine." As with Ponce de Leon the first impression was 
full of charm, for "we perceived a sweet perfume of 
several good things because of the wind which blew from 
the land," wrote one of the company to his father/ 
Laudonnifere reconnoitred the entrance to the harbour, 
called Seloy by the natives, and named by him the River 
of Dolphins,^ but, finding it unsuited to his purpose, set 
sail on the following day and two days later reached the 
River of May, the St. John's. Here he went ashore and 
was received with rejoicing by Saturiba,' an Indian chief 
whom he had met there on the occasion of Ribaut's first 
visit, and who conducted him to a sand-knoll where stood 
the pillar erected by Ribaut,* and which Manrique had 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 33 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 442. 

' " Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Florida, 1565," in Rectieil de Pieces 
sur la Floride, p. 235. 

^ De Bry in Brevis JVarratio, Francoforti ad Moenum, 1591, p. 7; 
Laudonniere in Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 36 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 445, and 
the author of "Coppie d'une lettre," etc., in Recueilde Pihes sur la Floride, 
p. 236, all say June 22nd. Meleneche in Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 
1565, fol. 3, says in the month of June. De Laet in his Hist, du Nouveau 
Monde, Leyde, 1640, liv. iv., chap, x., p. 119, says June 20th. 

■* Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 36; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 444-445 ; Parkman, 
Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 50 ; Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride 
Fran^aise, p. 50. 

* "Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride," in Recueil de Pihes sur la 
Floride, p. 236. 

* Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 37 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 446. 

' Variously called Satouriona, Saturiova, Satirova by the French ; Sa- 
tourioua in Hakluyt ; Sotoriba, Saturiban, Saturiba by the Spaniards. 
Meras calls the chief Saturiba, the form adopted in the text. 

* " Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride," in Recueil de Pihes sur la 
Floride, p. 239. 



The Second French Colony 55 

failed to discover. "Being come to the place where it was 
set vp," says Laudonnifere, "wee found the same crowned 
with crownes of Bay, and at the foote thereof many little 
baskets full of Mill," placed there probably as an offering 
to the mysterious emblem of the foreigners by the super- 
stitious natives, for "when they came thither they kissed 
the same with great reuerence and besought vs to do the 
like, which we would not denie them, to the ende that we 
might draw them to be more in friendship with vs." ' 

The following day Laudonniere visited Saturiba, whose 
village of the same name, consisting of twenty-five large 
huts with a population of about two hundred Indians with 
their families, lay a short distance to the south-west of the 
mouth of the St. John's,* and then explored the river for 
some distance. On St. John's Bluff, some five miles up 
the river,' he rested and sent Ottigny to examine the in- 
terior. He had selected a delightful spot in which to 
await his lieutenant, and even the horrible scene which he 
was destined to witness in the near future did not suffice 
to blot out the recollection of its beauty from his memory. 
The bluff was crowned with palms and "ceders red as 
blood" and "Baytrees of so souereigne an odour, that 
Baulme smelleth nothing like in comparison." "The 
sea may be scene plaine and open from it, and more than 
six leagues off . . . the medowes diuided asunder 
into Isles and Islets enterlacing one another" — a place 
"so pleasant, that those which are melancholicke would 
be enforced to change their humour." * 

Ottigny presently returned with a marvellous story. 
He had seen two men of very great age, and had enquired 
of the younger of the two how old he might be. 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 37 ; ffak., vol. ii., p. 446. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 43. 

* Parkman, Pioneers of Frajtce in the Nezv World, p. 52. 

^ " Coppie d'une letters venant de la Floride," in Recueil de Pihes sur 
la Floride, p. 242 ; Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 41 ; Hak., vol. ii,, p. 450. 



56 The Spanish Settlements 

"Then the olde man called a company of Indians, and 
striking twyse vpon his thigh, and laying his hands vpon two 
of them, he shewed him by signes that these two were his 
sonnes; againe smiting vpon their thighes he shewed him 
others not so olde, which were the children of the two first, 
which he continued in the same manner vntil the fift genera- 
tion. But though this olde man had his father aliue more olde 
than himselfe . . . yet it was tolde them that they might 
yet Hue thirtie or fortie yeeres more by the course of nature; 
although the younger of them both was not lesee than two 
hundred and fiftie yeeres olde," 

according to the Frenchman's generous reckoning.' 
Neither was this a solitary example of extreme old age 
which the credulous Frenchman found among the Indians. 
On a subsequent occasion one of their inferior chiefs in- 
formed Le Moyne "that he was three hundred years 
old, and that his father, whom he pointed out to me, 
was fifty years older."'' But this gift of longevity was 
apparently unattended by a corresponding growth in 
morals. "They were the greatest thieves on earth," 
says one of Laudonniere's companions, " for they steal 
as well with the feet as with the hands." ^ 

On returning from his pleasant retreat on the bluff to 
the mouth of the river, Laudonniere again met the chief 
and ' ' forgot not to demaud of him the place" from whence 
had come a wedge of silver which Saturiba had presented 
him on the previous occasion. He learned that it pro- 
ceeded from a region named Thimogoa," several days dis- 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 40, 41 ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 449-450. 
" Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride" in Recueil de Fihes sur la 
Floride, p. 239. Le Moyne in his Eicones, Plate XII., mentions a sorcerer 
120 years old. 

* Le Moyne in his Eicones, Plate XXVIII. 

^"Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride" in Recueil de Pieces sur la 
Floride, p. 240. LeChalleuxin " Histoire Memorable du dernier voyage en 
Floride," Lyon, 1566, reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 461. 

■* Timuqua. Le Moyne in Brevis Narratio, p. 14, says that " Thimogoa '* 



The Second French Colony 57 

tant up the St. John's, and with whose people Saturiba 
was at war. Pleased with the near prospect of such 
wealth, Laudonniere readily promised him his aid against 
his enemies, and then proceeded on a short reconnaissance 
up the coast, during which he assembled his company and 
set before them his plan for the settlement. He pointed 
out to them how the report of the first expedition showed 
that if "they passed further to the north to seeke out 
Port Royall, it would be neither very profitable nor con- 
uenient . . . although the Hauen were one of the 
fairest of the West Indies. . . . And that for our 
inhabiting it was much more needefull for vs to plant in 
places plentiful! of victuall, then in goodly Hauens," and 
that they had found the River of May, "the same only 
among all the rest to abounde in Maiz and corne, besides 
the Golde and Siluer that was found there" with its 
promise of further happy discovery in time to come.' 

As his proposition met with general consent the expe- 
dition returned to the River of May, and after some ex- 
ploration a spot was selected for the erection of the fort. 
It was on the right bank of the river, where it narrows to 
less than half a mile in width, at the head of the sand-bars 
which obstruct its entrance, and in the neighbourhood of 
a small stream, which empties into the St. John's. It 
was almost unapproachable from the seacoast, owing to 
intervening streams and marshes, and stood not far from 
the bluff, which commanded the wide prospect that had 
so entranced Laudonniere. The fort itself was located 
on a broad, flat knoll, raised a few feet above the marsh 
and the river.^ Having selected the site the company 
was assembled at daybreak at the sound of the trumpet, 
and after singing a psalm the men set to work on the 

signifies an enemy, for which reason he understands Saturiba to refer to 
his " enemy" Outina, who lived some distance up the St. John's. 

1 Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 43 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 452. 

'^ See Appendix G, Fort Caroline. 



58 The Spanish Settlements 

fort. It was built in the shape of a triangle, with a trench 
and turf battlements on the land side, which was towards 
the west ; on the south side there was a bastion built of 
fagots and sand, in which was a magazine for the ammu- 
nition, and it was enclosed on the river side by a palisade 
of planks. 

Laudonniere erected his own lodging within the fort 
on the river side, with one door towards the river and 
another opening on the court of the enclosure; covered 
galleries extended from it ; on the south was the corps de 
garde, and another structure was built towards the apex 
to the north. With the assistance of Saturiba's Indians, 
who had come to watch the proceedings, the buildings 
were thatched with palm leaves in the native fashion. 
Seven pieces of artillery were transported to the fort 
and placed to command both sides of the river.' It was 
named Fort Caroline in honour of Charles IX. A meadow 
stretched inland to the edge of a pine forest, which was 
distant but a quarter of a league, where lay the spring, 
reached by a narrow pathway across the field. ^ In this 
field, around the exterior of the fort, there gradually arose 
a small collection of buildings consisting of the bake-oven, 
a storehouse, and other outhouses.' 

Laudonnifere had chosen a thickly populated region to 
plant his settlement. He was in the midst of the Timu- 
quanan Indians, whose affiliation and language extended 
through the centre of the peninsula as far south as Lake 
Miami, where they touched the confines of the Caloosas 
to the south-west, and of the Tegestas on the south-east. 
They were hemmed in from the Atlantic to the east by 
the Ays Indians, who lived on the shores of the long 

' Le Moyne in De Bry, p. 8 ; Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 45, 46 ; Hak., 
vol. ii., pp. 454, 455 ; Rojomonte in Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., p. i ; 
Le Moyne in his Eiconcs, Plates IX. and X. These plates, however, do not 
correspond to the description given by Laudonniere. 

* " Hist. Memorable" in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 460. 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 46, 93 ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 455, 503. 



The Second French Colony 59 

lagoon stretching southward from Cape Canaveral and 
now known by the name of Indian River; but about the 
mouth of the St. John's they came down to the coast, 
and occupied some of the coast islands to the north,' 
such as Talbot and Amelia Islands. Their western 
boundary extended as far as the north-eastern angle of 
the Gulf of Mexico, where they came in contact with the 
Appalachians. Their northern boundary may have ex- 
tended into Georgia. The Timuquanan tribes had their 
most populous settlements on the St. John's River, along 
whose banks, and those of its tributaries, lay scattered 
many villages, each with its petty chief. On one of these 
was situated the village of Thimogoa,'' from which their 
name Timuqua is derived, and in the vicinity of Cape 
Canaveral lay the village of Tucururu, one of the south- 
ernmost of their habitations. 

Laudonniere in his Histoire Notable, as well as Le Moyne 
in many of the drawings in his Eicones, with their accom- 
panying legends,' has left us a vivid description of their 

' Laudonniere {Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 57 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 467) 
mentions the Paracoussy of Alimacany, whose river is identified with the 
Somme by Gourgues. La Reprise de la Floride, Larroque, Bordeaux, 1S67, 
p. 48. The name is variously written Allimacany, Alimacany, Halima- 
cany, Alicamani, and his country was probably Fort George Island. See 
Le Moyne's map, where the name is placed in this locality and Las Alas to 
, March 23, 156S. B7-ooks MSS., Library of Congress, Wash- 
ington. Barrientos (in Garcia, Dos Anliguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 
43) describes its site : "A la mano derecha, En entrando la barra \i. e., of 
the Rio de sant mateo] Ay Vna isleta do Esta Vn pueblo grande como sat- 
uriba que Uaman Alicamani." 

^'See Appendix H, Timuqua. 

^Histoire Notable, Basanier, Paris, 1586, pp. 4-7; Hak.y vol. ii., pp. 
413-416. Indorvm Floridam provinciam inhabitantium eicones, primum 
ibidem ad vivum expressse a lacobo Le Moyne cui cognomen De Morgves 
addita ad singulas brevi earum declaratione. Francoforti ad Moenvm. 
. . . Sumtibus Theodori de Bry, Anno MDXCL, Plates XL, XII., 
XIV.-XXVIL, XXIX., XXX., XXXIII.-XL. This has been translated in 
Narrative of Le Moyne, Boston, 1875, by Fred. B. Perkins, which has been 
largely used in this description. 



6o The Spanish Settlements 

customs, and which at the risk of some repetition, we will 
now consider, because it was in the midst of this Timu- 
quanan population that the most enduring of the Spanish 
settlements on our Atlantic coast was afterwards planted. 
The men and the women were all of fine proportion 
and went naked. The men were of an olive hue, very- 
corpulent and handsome, and without any apparent de- 
formity. They painted the skin around the mouth blue, 
and were tattooed on the arms and thighs with a certain 
herb, which they pricked in with a thorn ' and which left 
an indelible colour. The chiefs were probably tattooed 
over the entire body, as shown in Le Moyne's drawings, 
where the design is so complex and elaborate as to re- 
move all sense of nakedness. The process was a severe 
one and sometimes was followed by an illness lasting for 
seven or eight days. They rubbed their bodies with oil 
to protect them from the heat of the sun, and also during 
the observance of one of their religious ceremonies, to 
which usage they attributed their dark complexion, for at 
birth they were of a far whiter colour. They trussed up 
their long black hair upon the top of the head, and wore 
loin-cloths made from well-tanned deer-skins. Their 
warriors wore a head-dress of feathers, leaves, and grasses, 
or covered their heads with the skin of some wild animal, 
suspended over the breast small disks of gold and silver, 
which were engraved, and when on the war-path painted 
their faces to give themselves a fierce appearance.* 
Venereal disease was prevalent, for the men were much 
addicted to women, and to girls who were called "Daugh- 
ters of the Sun," and some were given to pederasty. 

' " The voyage made by M. lohn Hawkins, Esquire," etc., Hak., vol. iv., 
p. 241 ; Ribaut in " The true and last discoverie," etc. (reprint in Hist. Col. 
Louisiana and Florida, 2d series, " Historical Memoirs and Narratives," 
p. 171), says: "The forepart of their bodies and arms they also paint 
with pretty devices in azure, red, and black," which may possibly mean that 
they were tattooed in these colours. 

* Hawkins, Hak., vol. iv., pp. 241, 247. 



The Second French Colony 6i 

Their sense of smell was highly developed, for they were 
able to follow an enemy by his scent, and to recognise his 
approach. Their abstemiousness, even at their festivals, 
produced a marked impression on the French, who at- 
tributed to it the great age to which they attained. 
Laudonniere, to whom their mode of warfare was entirely 
novel, thought them deceitful and traitorous, but ac- 
knowledged their great courage in fighting, while Le 
Moyne dwells upon their honesty among themselves in 
the distribution of the communal stores. 

The women were tall and painted like the men, but 
much whiter. Their hair was allowed to grow down to 
the hips, about which it fell freely. They could climb the 
trees with agility, and were so robust they could swim 
across the broad and shallow rivers bearing their children 
in one arm. They attended to the household, where it 
was their duty to maintain the fire, which was kindled in 
the usual savage fashion by rubbing two sticks together.' 
They assisted in the planting of the corn-fields and took 
part in some of the public ceremonies. They lived apart 
from their husbands during their pregnancy, and the food 
which they ate during their courses was not touched by 
the man. Both men and women allowed the nails of 
their toes and fingers to grow long, and their finger-nails 
were sharpened to a point so that they might dig them 
into the forehead of a prisoner and tear down the skin 
over his face to wound and blind him. They pierced 
the lobe of the ear, through which small oblong fish- 
bladders dyed red were passed, which when inflated shone 
like light-coloured carbuncles. There were many her- 
maphrodites * among them, upon whom fell the heaviest 

' Arte de la Lengua Timvqvana compiiesto en 1612 por el P^ Francisco 
Pareja y publicado conforme al original tinico, por Lucien Adam y Julien 
Vinson, Paris, 1S86, p. xvi. ; Hawkins, Hak., vol. iv., p. 240. 

' This is the term employed by Le Moyne, who gives no further explana- 
tion. It is possible that they were identical with the miijerados of the Pueblo 



62 The Spanish Settlements 

work; they carried the provisions when the Indians went 
on the war-path, transported the sick, cared for those 
who had contagious diseases, and prepared the dead for 
burial. 

The title of a chief was paracusi, and when spoken of 
in his quality of a war-chief he was called urriparacusi, 
urri or iri meaning war.' The chiefs were united in 
various confederations, which acknowledged a head chief, 
such as Outina, who ruled over some forty villages on the 
west side of the St, John's and who dwelt near the mouth 
of the Oklawaha, and Saturiba at the mouth of the St. 
John's, who had thirty chiefs under him.^ These chieftains 

Indians of New Mexico, described by Dr. William A. Hammond in " The 
Disease of the Scythians," New York, 1882, p. 5 et seq., reprint from The 
American Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry, 1882. 

'Alberts. Gatschet, "The Timucua Language" in Proceedings of the 
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 627 ; xviii., 
p. 502. 

^ Fontanedo, Memoria de las cosas y costa y Indios de la Florida, Col. 
Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo v., p. 545 ; Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 49, 59 ; 
Hak., vol. ii., pp. 458, 468. When, in the summer of 1567, Aviles ascended 
the St. John's and found himself a few leagues beyond the village of Outina, 
he observed that the tides were perceptible at a distance of forty leagues 
from its mouth. (Barrientos, in Genaro Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de 
la Florida, p. 123 ; Meras, in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 251.) Fon- 
tanedo {ibid., p. 545) mentions two of Outina's villages by name, Saravay 
and Moloa, and states that on landing in Outina's country, Tocobaga (which 
was on the west coast) could be reached. Mr. O. H. Tittmann, Superin- 
tendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, in a letter to the 
author, of May 20, 1904, says he is informed by the Fish Department that 
practically the water of the St. John's is fresh at Palatka. At Beecher Point, 
at the mouth of the Oklawaha and foot of Little Lake George, a small effect 
of the tide is noticeable, or rather measurable, the range being about 1.3 
feet, but the average rise and fall is only one-quarter foot. These data in- 
dicate that Outina was on the west bank of the St. John's near the Okla- 
waha, which is also the location given by Fairbanks in his History of Florida, 
p. 139 ; Albert S. Gatschet, in The Proceedings of the American Philosophi- 
cal Society, Philadelphia, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 627, places Outina on Lake 
George, and adds that " Uitna, or Utinama, simply means ' my country.'" 
See also ibid., 1878, vol. xvii., p. 492, where Utinama is said to signify 
" upper chief." 



The Second French Colony 63 

were continually at war with each other, and it was the 
advent of so powerful an ally as the French to aid him 
in his raids that had caused Saturiba to receive Laudon- 
niere with so much civility. The tribes were divided into 
various gentes or kinships, such as those of the upper 
chiefs, from which were taken the councillors or chief 
men, and the lower gens of the common people, called 
the "Dirt or Earth Pedigree." ' 

Next in importance to the chief stood the shamans or 
iaruas, a name which Father Pareja, who dwelt among 
them about fifty years later, and who wrote several works 
in their language, translates by "sorcerer," * and which 
referred to their prophetic powers and the convulsions 
affected by them to obtain oracles of war. These were 
"great magicians, great soothsayers, and callers upon 
devils," says Laudonniere, and were held in the highest 
esteem. Their duties were as manifold as were the occu- 
pations of those to whom they ministered. Mr. Gatschet 
deduces from the questions put by Father Pareja to the 
catechumen in his "Confessionario," ^ that most of the old 
men acted as conjurers. They consecrated the arrows 
before the departure of a hunting party, and, if the game 
was not killed by the first arrow, prayed over a second, 
which was sure to accomplish its mission. They caused 
rain, found lost objects for the owner, recited blessings 
or incantations over ears of corn, over the newly con- 
structed fish-ways, over a good haul, and over the baskets 

'A. S. Gatschet, " The Timucua Language," Proceedings of the American 
Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1878, vol. xvii., p. 492. 

^ " The Timucua Language," ibid., vol. xviii., p. 500, where Gatschet 
derives it from yuru, to tremble, to be shaken or contorted ; Arte de la 
Lengua Timvqvana, Paris, 1886, p. xiii. 

'" Confessionario En lengua Castellana y Timuquana . . . Ordenado 
por el Padre Fr. Francisco Pareja . . . Mexico . . . 1613." Pass- 
ages from it are given by Mr. Gatschet in his " The Timucua Language" 
in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1877, 
vol. xvi., pp. 635-638. 



64 The Spanish Settlements 

of fruit, taking one-half of the catch of fish, or the first 
deer killed in payment for their services.' They foretold 
the future and cured the sick by means of incantations 
and by administering herbs and drugs which they carried 
about with them in a bag. Their cures were generally 
but half made in order to secure a greater reward from 
the sufferer. 

Le Moyne gives us some of their methods of procedure 
in this latter capacity. They fumigated the sick man by 
turning him upon his face above a bed of hot coals upon 
which certain seeds were cast. The smoke arising there- 
from, passing through his nose and mouth, acted as a 
vomit, and was supposed to reach all parts of the body. 
Another form of administering a fumigation was by 
smoking tobacco in a pipe. They also operated by bleed- 
ing, cutting into the skin of the forehead with a sharp 
shell, and sucking the blood out, which the shaman then 
spat into an earthenware or gourd receptacle. Women 
who were suckling boys, or who were with child, drank 
the blood, particularly if it was that of a strong young 
man, to strengthen their milk and to make their children 
bolder and more energetic. 

Their villages consisted of a gathering of only a few 
huts, for they lived a hundred together in great com- 
munal houses, built with stanchions and rafters made out 
of whole trees, and roofed with palmettos, having only 
one small room divided off for the chief and his wife. In 
the centre stood a hearth, where a great fire was kept 
burning all night. Along the sides of the house, which 
they occupied only during the night-time, were placed 
their beds, where they slept upon head-rests or pillows 
made from wooden blocks hollowed out for the shoulders 
and raised for the head.^ Their fortified villages were 
usually situated in the neighbourhood of a stream and 

' " Confessionario," ibid., vol. xvi., p. 635. 
'Hawkins, Hak., vol. iv., p. 240. 



The Second French Colony 65 

were each surrounded by a circular palisade having but 
one entrance. This was formed by the overlapping of 
the two ends of the palisade after the fashion of a spiral, 
and was so narrow that not more than two persons at a 
time could pass through it. Two guardhouses were sta- 
tioned, the one within, the other without the entrance, 
and the course of the stream was also diverted to it. 
The chief's house stood in the centre of the enclos- 
ure, somewhat sunken in the ground on account of 
the summer heats, and was surrounded by those of the 
principal men. All of the huts were roofed with a light 
thatch of palm leaves, which rendered them exceedingly 
inflammable. 

Their corn plantings, of which there were two, one in 
March and the other in June, occurred during the period 
of nine months which they annually spent in their vil- 
lages. When seeding time was at hand the chief sent an 
Indian to gather his subjects together for the work; the 
field was then cleared by burning off the weeds, and the 
earth was cultivated with a kind of hoe made from a fish- 
bone fitted to a handle. After the ground was sufficiently 
broken up and levelled the women did the planting, some 
of them going first and making a hole in the ground with 
a stick, into which another group of women, who followed 
them, dropped the corn or beans. The plantings, how- 
ever, were small and calculated to produce only enough 
food for six months. The fields were then left alone 
until the crop was ripe, when it was gathered and stored 
in the communal storehouse for the winter's use, none 
of it being used in trade. These granaries or storehouses, 
called barbacoa, built of stone and earth, roofed over with 
palm branches, were usually erected near some hill, where 
they were sheltered from the sun for the better preserva- 
tion of their contents, or on the bank of a stream where 
ready access could be had to them by water. Here, also 
were stored what other provisions they collected, such as 



66 The Spanish Settlements 

game, fish, and alligators, which were dried and smoked 
over a fire. The storehouse was under the custody of a 
special guardian, who was killed with a blow from a club 
on the slightest neglect of his duty.* These stores were 
only resorted to in case of extreme necessity, when full 
notice was given to all interested, whereupon the distri-' 
bution took place to each according to his rank, the chief 
alone being at liberty to take whatever supply he chose. 

The food was supplemented by a drink called casina, 
which was drunk upon all ceremonial occasions as well as 
at other times. It consisted of a decoction of the leaves 
of a certain root, which was strained and served hot. 
It was not an intoxicant, but strengthened and nourished 
the body to such an extent that it was possible to go for 
twenty-four hours without food or water after drinking it, 
for which reason it was the principal supply taken along 
when the warriors went on the war-path. The drink had 
the property of at once throwing into a sweat whoever 
partook of it, and of producing vomitings, for which 
reason he who was unable to retain it upon his stomach 
was considered unfit for a difficult commission or for any 
military responsibility. It was so greatly prized that no 
one was allowed to drink it in council unless he had 
proved himself a brave warrior. 

During the winter months the natives deserted their 
villages and migrated into the forest, where they con- 
structed shelters of palm branches, and subsisted on 
acorns, oysters, terrapin, fish, dogs, snakes, and game, 
which they roasted over the coals ; Laudonniere adds that 
in necessity they ate "a thousand rifraffs, even to the 
swallowing down of coles, and putting sand into the pot- 
tage which they make of [corn] meal." The fish were 
caught in ponds dug for the purpose and from which the 
water was afterwards withdrawn.' Their method of 
hunting the deer has been previously described, and con- 

^ Arte de la Lengua Timvqvana, Paris, 1886, p. xvii. ''■ Ibid.^ p, xvi. 



The Second French Colony 67 

sisted in disguising themselves in its skin and stealing; 
upon it. The alligators, which were so numerous and 
dangerous that the natives were compelled to keep a con- 
stant watch against them both day and night, were hunted 
by the Indians in parties. A watch was set, concealed in 
a little hut near a stream, and when an alligator, driven 
on to the shore by hunger, gave notice of his presence by 
his bellowing, which could be heard at a great distance, 
the watchman summoned his companions, and they at- 
tacked him with a long pointed pole, thrusting it down his 
throat as he advanced against them with open mouth. He 
was then turned over on his back and his soft belly pierced 
with arrows and beaten with clubs until he was killed. 

The chief and his principal men, whom Le Moyne calls 
his nobles, were accustomed to meet during certain days 
of the year for deliberation on important affairs, in a 
public place set apart for the purpose, where a bench was 
constructed, having a projecting seat for the chief, to dis- 
tinguish his rank. After he had taken his appointed 
place his councillors approached him led by the oldest 
member, and each in turn saluted him twice, raising both 
hands to the height of his head, and exclaiming, "Ha, he, 
ye, ha, ha," to which the others replied, "Ha, ha," and 
then took his seat beside him. This was followed by the 
drinking of a potation of casina prepared by the women 
and served in a large shell. It was drunk by the chief first 
and the others in succession according to their rank after 
a blessing had been invoked upon the assembly and the 
drink by one of the councillors. Their councils were very 
deliberate and well advised, and where the question was 
one of importance the chief called upon the shaman and 
upon the elders, one at a time, to deliver their opinions. 

Laudonniere informs us that they had "no knowledge 
of God, nor of any religion, saving that which they see, 
as the Sun and the Moon." Le Mo5me has left us an 
account of the annual sun worship in the country of 



68 The Spanish Settlements 

Outina, which was observed at the end of February. 
The skin of the largest stag that could be found with 
the horns still on, was stuffed full of the choicest roots, 
and its horns, neck, and body were hung with long gar- 
lands of the finest fruits. Thus decorated it was carried 
with music and song to a large level space, where it was 
set up on a very high tree, with its head and breast to- 
wards the sunrise. Then the chief, standing with his 
shaman near the tree, offered prayers to the sun, beseech- 
ing it to cause their lands to grow such good things as 
those they now offered it, and the common people placed 
at a distance made the responses. Then the chief and 
the worshippers, saluting the sun, departed, leaving the 
deer's hide there until the next year. 

Human sacrifice also existed among them, the first- 
born son being offered to the chief according to Le 
Moyne, who possibly but half understood the office which 
he filled in the ceremony. The chief seated himself near 
the tree stump, which served as the sacrificial altar, be- 
fore which the mother of the victim squatted on her heels, 
her face covered with her hands in sorrow. Her principal 
female friend or relative then offered the child to the 
chief in worship, after which the women who attended 
her danced in a circle around the stump with great 
demonstrations of joy. The woman who held the child 
danced in the middle, singing the praises of the chief. 
At one side stood a group of six Indians, surrounding 
the individual who performed the sacrifice, and who was 
decorated for the ceremony and carried a club. When 
the dancing was over this official stepped up to the im- 
provised altar, where, in the presence of the assembly, he 
sacrificed the child. 

The belief in witchcraft was widespread,' and super- 

' Extract from Father Pareja's " Confessionario " in A. S. Gatschet, " The 
Timucua Language," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 
Philadelphia, 187S, vol. xvii., pp. 500, 501. 



The Second French Colony 69 

stitious practices were attached to almost every act of 
their daily life. Their character is indicated by the fol- 
lowing, selected from among those condemned by Father 
Pareja ' : Drinking out of another's cup after eating bear's 
meat prevented one from falling sick ; a tremor passing 
over the body indicated that some one was coming or 
that something was about to happen; the hooting of an 
owl brought luck and should not be interrupted ; whis- 
tling during a storm caused it to cease ; women were in the 
habit of washing themselves with the infusion of a certain 
herb in order to recall an absent husband ; to dye their 
palm-leaf hats with a certain vegetable dye to induce men 
to fall in love with them ; to fast for the same reason, and 
so on. Other practices cited as superstitious partook of 
the nature of propitiatory sacrifice, such as exposing corn 
at the door of the house, when ill, the refusal to eat the 
first fruit, or the first ear of corn, or the first harvest 
gathered from a newly cultivated field. '^ 

The Timuquanans were monogamous, and although 
the chief was allowed two or three wives, only the child- 
ren of the first wife inherited from him. In common 
with most of the tribes of North American Indians, inter- 
marriage was prohibited among the members of certain 
lineages, as among those of the upper chief and council- 
lors.^ On the death of the men in war, or from disease, 
it was the custom for their widows to select some occasion 
on which they approached the chief with loud demonstra- 
tions of sorrow, calling upon him to avenge the death of 
their husbands, for support during their widowhood, and 
for permission to remarry after the expiration of the 
period appointed for mourning. Having received his as- 
sent, they proceeded to the burial-place, where they cut 
off their long hair below the ears, and scattering it over 

' See the passages from his "Confessionario" in ibid., vol. xvi., pp. 635-638. 
^ Arte de la Lengua Timvqvana, Paris, 1886, p. xviii. 
^A. S. Gatschet, " The Timucua Language," Proceedings of the Anieri- 
cafi Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1S7S, vol. xvii., p. 492. 



*]o The Spanish Settlements 

the graves of their husbands, placed upon them the 
weapons and drinking-sholls of the dead. Only when 
their hair had grown long enough to cover the shoulders 
were they permitted to remarry. 

When the chief wished to marry he directed the tallest 
and handsomest one of the daughters of the principal 
men to be selected. She was brought to him with great 
ceremony on a litter covered with the skin of some rare 
animal and sheltered under a canopy of boughs which 
formed part of the litter. Four men carried it on their 
shoulders, each of them provided with a forked pole on 
which to rest it when halting. Two more walked at the 
sides, shielding her from the sun with large screens or 
fans. She was preceded by trumpeters blowing on horns 
made of bark hung with oval balls of silver, gold, and 
brass which tinkled as they marched, and she was fol- 
lowed by a procession of the most beautiful of the Indian 
girls clad in skirts made of pendant Spanish moss, their 
necks and arms decorated with necklaces and bracelets of 
pearls, and each carrying in her hand a basket of fruits. 
Behind them came the body-guards. The chief received 
her seated on a platform erected for the purpose, where 
she was placed at his left. The principal men sat below 
them on long benches placed on cither side of the plat- 
form. The chief then congratulated the maiden on her 
accession and informed her why he had chosen her, to 
which she replied, holding her fan in her hand. A dance 
was then performed before them by young girls dressed 
for the occasion, their hair tied back of their heads and 
flowing down over their shoulders, and wearing belts from 
which were suspended ovals of gold and silver. As they 
danced about in a circle to the tinkle of the trinkets they 
sang the praises of the chief and his bride, raising and 
lowering their hands in unison. Le Moyne had described 
the ceremony attending an evening promenade of Saturiba 
and his wife. The chief was clad in a deer-skin painted 



The Second French Colony 71 

in various colours, the train of which was carried by a 
young man wearing a belt from which dangled little balls 
of gold and silver, while two young men walked at his 
side fanning him. His wife and her handmaidens were 
clothed in cloaks and skirts of the slender blue-green fila- 
ments of the Spanish moss, woven together in links, and of 
so delicate a texture as to be mistaken for filaments of 
silk. 

On the death of a chief his drinking-shell was placed 
upon his grave, and arrows were planted in the ground 
around it ; all of his household goods were put into his 
house, which was then burned down. His subjects 
mourned for him, fasting, three days and nights, and cut 
off half of their long tresses. In addition to this certain 
women were chosen, who for a period of six months 
mourned him three times a day, at dawn, noon, and twi- 
light, with a great howling. When the priests died their 
bodies were buried in their own houses, which were then 
set on fire and consumed, with all of their furniture. 

We shall have ample illustration in this history of their 
method of fighting. It was preceded by a declaration of 
war, which consisted in sticking up in the public ways 
arrows having locks of hair fastened at the notches. Le 
Moyne relates a ceremony at which the French were pres- 
ent, preceding one of the raids of Saturiba, and which re- 
sembled in several details that of the Co^as in their war 
against the Napochies described in the previous volume.' 
Having assembled his warriors, the army sat down in a 
circle with Saturiba in the centre. A fire stood at his 
left and two great vessels of water at his right. After 
various demonstrations of rage he suddenly set up a hor- 
rible yell in which his warriors joined, striking their hips 
and rattling their weapons. Then Saturiba, taking a 
wooden platter of water, turned toward the sun and wor- 
shipped it, praying for victory over the enemy and that 

^Spanish Settlements, I5I3-I5C>I, P- 3^5. 



72 The Spanish Settlements 

their blood might be poured out like the water he was 
about to scatter from the platter. He then flung the 
water with a great cast up into the air, and as it fell 
down upon his warriors he addressed them, saying: "As I 
have done with this water, so I pray that you may do 
with the blood of your enemies." Then he poured the 
water from the other vessel upon the fire and said: "So 
may you be able to extinguish your enemies, and bring 
back their scalps." 

While proceeding on the war-path each chief appears 
to have followed his own devices. Le Moyne tells us 
that Saturiba preserved no order in his ranks, but that 
the men marched along, one after the other, just as they 
saw fit. Outina, on the other hand, marched his warriors 
in regular ranks, himself alone, in the middle, painted 
red, while the swiftest of his young men, also painted 
red, acted as advance-guards and scouts, reporting im- 
mediately to the army as soon as they came upon any 
trace of the enemy. The movements were directed 
by heralds, who shouted the orders. After sunset the 
army halted and no longer gave battle, and encamped 
in concentric circles, with the chief and his body-guard in 
the centre. The commissary consisted of hermaphro- 
dites, who carried the food, which consisted principally 
of the drink casina, although bread, honey, and roasted 
corn were also taken along. 

Before the attack the shaman was sometimes consulted 
that he might furnish the necessary information concern- 
ing the movements of the enemy. Le Moyne has given 
us a curious account of such an occasion, in which an 
ancient sorcerer, more than one hundred and twenty 
years old according to his own story, having made a place 
in the centre of the army, borrowed a shield from one of 
the Frenchmen present, laid it on the ground, and drew 
around it a circle inscribed with strange characters and 
signs. Then he knelt on the shield so that no part of his 



The Second French Colony 73 

person touched the earth, and began a low recitation ac- 
companied by various gestures. In the course of a quarter 
of an hour he was seized with convulsions attended with 
such violent contortions 

"that he was hardly like a human being; for he twisted his 
limbs so that his bones could be heard to snap out of place, 
and did many other unnatural things. After going through 
all of this he came back all at once to his ordinary condition, 
but in a very fatigued state and with an air as if astonished; 
and then stepping out of his circle he saluted the chief, and 
told him the number of the enemy and where they were in- 
tending to meet him." 

An enemy slain in battle was instantly dragged off 
and scalped by means of slips of reed "sharper than any 
steel blade," and with which an incision was made around 
the skull. The scalp was then dried over a fire and sus- 
pended from the belt. After the victory the limbs of the 
slain were amputated in the same manner, the bones 
broken, the yet bleeding members dried and carried back 
in triumph, suspended from the ends of the spears, and 
the bodies were then further mutilated, after the manner 
of most savage peoples. They spared the women and 
children, bringing them back with them. On returning 
to the village the victory was celebrated in a place set 
apart for the purpose, where the scalps and other trophies 
were affixed with solemn ceremonies to tall poles set in a 
row in the ground, around which the men and women sat 
in a circle. The shaman stood within the circle, holding 
in his hand a small image and muttering in a low voice 
a form of imprecation against the enemy. At the 
side of the circle opposite to him knelt three men, one 
of whom marked the time to each word of the impreca- 
tion by beating on a flat stone in front of him with his 
club, while his companions on each side shook rattles made 
from dried seeds, all three chanting an accompaniment. 



.74 The Spanish Settlements 

The youths were trained in running, and a prize was 
given the one who showed the greatest endurance in the 
contest. They played a game in which a ball was cast at 
a square target placed on the summit of a high tree, and 
they were fond of fishing and hunting. 

We gather from the drawings of Le Moyne and from 
occasional remarks elsewhere that they excelled in many 
of the savage industries. They could weave fans and 
hats and baskets from the palm leaves. They had a 
knowledge of the manufacture of pottery. They fash- 
ioned trinkets out of the gold and silver recovered from 
the vessels wrecked along the coast and from that ob- 
tained by barter from the mountains to the north. They 
were skilful in the preparation of their weapons, making 
the strings of their bows from the gut and hide of the 
stag, and the heads of their arrows of stones and fish- 
bones. Judging from Le Moyne's drawings, their boats 
were made by hollowing out the trunks of large forest 
trees. They appear to have woven the long filaments of 
the Spanish moss into some sort of a loose texture, and 
were remarkably deft in the preparation of the animals 
which they killed in the chase, dressing the skins with 
shells and dying them yellow and red, black and russet,' 
giving them a finish which evoked the ceaseless admira- 
tion of the Europeans. 

* Hawkins, Hak„ vol. iv., p. 241. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE SECOND FRENCH <ZO\.O^Y— Continued 

THE fort had hardly been completed when Laudon- 
nifere, who was not disposed to "lose a minute of 
an houre, without employing of the same in some vertuous 
exercise," sent Ottigny up the river with two Indians for 
guides in search of Thimogoa. The lieutenant shortly 
returned with the news of having ascended nearly thirty 
leagues where he had heard of a " King," rich in gold and 
silver, who dwelt at a distance of three days' journey in 
the interior of the country. Ottigny, in spite of his pre- 
vious treaty with Saturiba, "the most ancient and natural 
enemy of Thimogoa," had also made advances towards 
establishing friendly relations with the latter. This he 
accomplished by rescuing some of the villagers from the 
assault of his two guides, and he left one soldier at each 
village he visited to seek for additional information. 
Two weeks later Captain Vasseur ascended the river a 
second time, and after two days sailing, came upon one of 
these soldiers in the village of another petty chief, Mollona, 
where he had secured five or six pounds of silver by 
trafficking with the natives. Here Vasseur heard of 
Outina, head chief of a great confederacy, whose allies 
when at war covered their bodies with plates of gold and 
silver; of Potauou,' "cruel in war, but pitiful in the exe- 
cution of his furie," who was usually at war with Outina; 

' This is the form given by Basanier, p. 49 ; Hakluyt writes " Potanou." 

75 



76 The Spanish Settlements 

and of the two chieftains, Onatheaqua and Houstaqua, 
dwelHng near the Appalachian Mountains, who painted 
their faces black. When Vasseur promised the assistance 
of Laudonniere in conquering them, the delighted Mol- 
lona "answered that the least of these Kings which hee 
had named should present vr?to the Generall of these suc- 
cours the height of two foot of gold and siluer." On his 
way back with this encouraging news, Vasseur passed a 
night with a small chief, who, under the impression that 
the French had subdued the village of Thimogoa, showed 
the greatest delight. The lieutenant, perceiving it, en- 
couraged his fancy, until the savage ended by praying 
the Frenchman "that hee would shew him by signs how 
all things passed." Nothing loath at a bit of gasconade 
in the presence of so credulous an audience, La Caille, 
sergeant of the band, "tooke his sword in his hand, saying 
that with the point thereof he had thrust through two 
Indians, which ranne into the woods, and that his com- 
panions had done no lesse for their partes. And that if 
fortune had so fauoured them . . . they had had a 
victorie most glorious and worthie of eternall memorie." ' 
On the 28th of July," the Isabella departed on her re- 
turn voyage to France, bearing with her as a present to 
the Queen some small pieces of gold and silver, fifty 
pearls, which Laudonniere had obtained from the natives,' 
and the hide of an alligator which had been killed in the 
river." There remained behind in the settlement two 
hundred colonists. One hundred and fifty of these were 
soldiers who garrisoned the fort ; the balance were the 

"^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 49, 50; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 458, 459. 
'^ Meleneche in his deposition in Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 1565, 
fol. 4, says July 22nd ; Le Moyne in De Bry, p. 7. 

* Rojomonte in Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., p. l. 

* " Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride" in Recueil de Pikes sur la 
Floride, p. 245, where an alligator is described. Also in " Hist. Memo- 
rable " in Gaffarel's Hist, de la Floride, p. 462, where Le Challeux expresses 
his surprise at its having no wings ! 



The Second French Colony "]'] 

artisans and servants already noted, as well as the four 
women.' The arrival of reinforcements from France was 
not expected before March of the following year," and in 
the interval Laudonnifere was left to derive what profit he 
could out of the tricks with which he had beguiled the 
Indians about him. And now Saturiba began to press 
the Frenchman for the promised assistance against 
Thimogoa, and was put off with evasive words, that 
served only to awaken his displeasure. Weary with the 
prolonged delay the Indian chief at last departed alone 
on the war-path against his enemy, from which he soon 
returned triumphant with scalps and prisoners.' 

Laudonniere, who himself tells us how he "trauailed 
to purchase friends, and to practice one while with one 
here, and another while with another there," * improved 
the opportunity to exercise his short-sighted policy of 
making to himself a present enemy in the hope of secur- 
ing a possible friend in the future. It occurred to him 
that could he release some of the prisoners brought back 
by Saturiba, and return them to Thimogoa, he would 
establish a still firmer claim to his friendship. As Satu- 
riba angrily refused to deliver them up to one who had 
broken faith with him and left him to do battle alone, 
Laudonnifere sent a band of soldiers to his house and 
intimidated him into compliance. Saturiba, although 
deeply offended and brooding vengeance, continued to 
lull the suspicions of the French with presents, while 
Laudonnifere fatuously counselled him to make peace 
with his enemy. The month of August was drawing to 
an end when there arose a severe thunder-storm in which 
the lightning fell with such force as to consume the 

' Rojomonte in Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., p. 2; Meleneche in Noriega 
to Philip II., March 29, 1565, fol. 4. 

^ Rojomonte in Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., p. 2, 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 53-55; Hak., vol. ii,, pp.463, 464; Le 
Moyne in De Bry, p. 10, and in Eicones, Plate XV. 

* Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 60 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 469. 



78 The Spanish Settlements 

harvests of the Indians, burning the green meadows and 
killing the birds in the fields. Saturiba mistook it for a 
cannonade directed against his dwelling by the French. 
In this belief he was again encouraged by the ill-advised 
Frenchman, and, no longer able to disguise his deep- 
rooted hatred, withdrew from the neighbourhood. And 
now war broke out between Outina and Potauou. Un- 
der the impression that the only road to the Appa- 
lachian Mountains, where gold and silver were found, lay 
through Outina's dominions,' Laudonniere sent Arlac'' to 
Outina's assistance, and thus enabled him to secure the 
victory. 

Laudonniere's bearing towards the settlers was as ill- 
judged as his dealings with the savages. Le Moyne 
complains that he surrounded himself with two or three 
favourites and frowned upon the common soldiers. As a 
result of this and of the dissatisfaction of some of the 
noblemen with the results so far attained, discontent be- 
gan to show itself. The more serious element of the 
community was indignant at the absence of a pastor to 
minister to its spiritual wants.' And yet an effort was 
made to give some religious instruction to the savages in 
the neighbourhood. Two or three of the colonists, among 
whom was probably "Maistre " Robert, learned in Holy 
Writ, and who conducted the prayers of the fort,^ took 
upon themselves the teaching of the chiefs and Indians, 
collecting some two hundred of the native children for 
that object,^ with such signal results, and the binding of 
such close ties of affection between them, that Men^ndez 

' Le Moyne in Eicones, Plate XII. 

* Charlevoix in Histoire de la Nouvelle France (Nyon Fils), Paris, 1744, 
tome i., p. 37, says in a note that this orthography is merely the result of an 
incorrect pronunciation of the well-known Swiss family name of Erlach. 

^ Le Moyne in Brevis Narratio, pp. 9, 10. 

*Le Challeux in " Hist. Memorable" in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 
466. 

^Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 22, 1566, DSpeches, p. 61. 



The Second French Colony 79 

himself pays them a tribute for their devotion. "These 
French have many Indian friends and have showed much 
sorrow for the perdition " of the Indians, who followed 
their teachers about "as the Apostles did our Lord; so 
that it is a wonder to see how these Lutherans have be- 
witched this poor savage people." ' This dissatisfaction 
soon assumed a more serious phase. A conspiracy arose 
against Laudonnifere among some of the colonists, lured 
by the pretended magical discovery of a mine of gold 
and silver up the river, by which they hoped to enrich 
themselves. But their attempts, first to poison him and 
then to blow him up with a barrel of gunpowder concealed 
beneath his bed, were happily frustrated, and their leader 
escaped to the Indians.^ On the 4th of September Cap- 
tain Bourdet arrived from France with reinforcements. 
An expedition sent to discover the interior remained 
there for six months, and on the loth Bourdet returned 
to France, carrying back with him a few of the least 
trustworthy of the colonists. 

On September 20, 1564, occurred the first of the series 
of incidents which served to confirm the Spaniards in their 
conviction of the piratical designs of the French colony. 
Thirteen men stole one of the barks with the intention 
of preying upon the Spaniards, and having provisioned it 
put to sea, and coming across a Spanish vessel with a 
treasure of gold and silver in the neighbourhood of Cuba 
they captured it. All of them being well armed with 
sword, shield, and arquebuse, they next proceeded to 
plunder a small hamlet, the inhabitants of which fled 
before them. From there they made for the harbour of 
Matanzas, after they had abandoned the small boat in 

' Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565 ; Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 87. 

"^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 60, 61 ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 469-471 It is 
not improbable that this leader, La Roquette, is the ex-monk, cosmogra- 
pher, and necromancer, mentioned by Mendoza ("Relacion" in Ruidiaz, La 
Florida, tomo ii. , p. 460), as having been killed at Fort Caroline. 



8o The Spanish Settlements 

which they had made their escape from Fort Caroline for 
the better one they had captured, and had forced its cap- 
tain to enter into their service. Ill luck caused them to 
miss Matanzas and land in a small harbour called Arcos, 
and while they were searching about for water, the man 
they had impressed escaped to Havana, where he gave the 
alarm. The adventure ended with the capture of the 
entire party, some of its members being sent prisoners to 
Spain and the others remaining in Havana.' This affair 
was followed by the desertion of two Flemish carpenters, 
who had but recently arrived with Bourdet, and who 
stole Laudonniere's remaining boats, so that he was 
compelled to go to work to construct others. 

The want of active employment among the colonists, 
the discontent fed by the dissipation of their golden vis- 
ions, and the bad example set by the escape of the thir- 
teen sailors now bore fruit in a much more serious mutiny, 
fraught with far more damage to the good repute of 
the settlement than the previous revolt. During the 
month of November'' a band of sixty-six men, not con- 
tent to "take the paines so much as to fish in the riuer 
before their doors, but would haue all things put in their 
mouthes," ^ urged on by two Frenchmen and a Genoese, 
and tempted by the sight of the two barks, which were near 
completion, entered into a conspiracy to seize them and 
seek their fortune on the neighbouring Spanish islands. 
Their number was sufficiently formidable to enable them 
to proceed with a high hand. They seized Laudonni^re, 
who, as on the occasion of the former mutiny, was sick 
of an illness that seemed designed to conceal his own 
want of determination, and carried him a prisoner aboard 

' Deposition of Meleneche in Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 1565, fol. 
5. Meleneche was one of the three prisoners sent to Spain. 

* This occurred about November, 1564 ; see Noticias de la Poblacidn, etc., 
p. 2. 

^Hawkins, Hakluyt, vol. iv., p. 242. 



The Second French Colony 8i 

a boat which was anchored in the harbour, wounding one 
of his gentlemen in the endeavour. There they held him 
prisoner until the two boats were in condition to set sail, 
compelled him to furnish them with arquebuses and can- 
non, powder and provisions, and finally, having threat- 
ened him with death in case of his refusal to accede to 
their wishes, they obtained his signature to their passport, 
with the grant of additional sailors and of a pilot.' 

On December 8th ^ they set out upon their piratical ad- 
ventures. Scarcely had they left Fort Caroline when the 
two vessels became separated, owing to internal dissen- 
sions or the violence of a tempest.' One of the vessels, 
after cruising two weeks among the Lucayan Islands, 
made the Cape of St. Nicolas, near which it took a vessel 
on its way to Cabray, and finally reached Havana. The 
second bark, in which were one of the chief conspirators 
and the pilot furnished by Laudonnifere, kept along the 
coast to Cuba in order to double the cape more easily, 
and captured a brigantine loaded with cassava, losing two 
of its crew in the affray. Being a vessel of greater size 
than their own roughly made bark, the mutineers trans- 
ferred their belongings aboard of her, and taking the bark 
along with them made for Baracou, a village in Jamaica, 
where they seized a caravel of some fifty tons burden, in 
which they all re-embarked, and after a carouse of five 
or six days in the village returned to the Cape of Tiburon. 
Off the cape they captured a vessel from Santo Domingo 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 63 et seq. ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 473-475 ; Le 
Moyne in De Bry, p. 12, 13. Rojomonte, who was one of the mutineers, 
says in his deposition {IVoticias de la Poblacidn, etc., p. 2), that these alleged 
mutineers were sent off by Laudonniere in search of provisions ; and see also 
Confesion que se tomo a un hombre que bino de la Ysla de Cuba sobre lo 
tocante a la Florida, 1551-1565. MS. Arch, Gen. de Indias, Sevilla, Patro- 
nato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 1/19, ramo 5, p. 5. 

* Le Moyne in De Bry, p. 12. 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 66 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 476; Noticias de la 
Poblacidn, etc., p. 2. 
**.— 6. 



82 The Spanish Settlements 

bound for Santiago de Cuba, on board of which was a 
judge' commissioned by the Royal Audiencia of Hispan- 
iola for its port of destination, together with a store of 
slaves, sugar, merchandise, and wine. The judge and his 
negro servant were slain in the encounter. The pilot and 
crew they transferred to their own vessel, where they 
were imprisoned for eight days in the hold. By this 
time their provisions had become reduced to a supply for 
two days only, and they enquired of the pilot of the 
captured vessel how they could reach Jamaica, where 
they expected to trade the merchandise they had cap- 
tured for food. The pilot readily consented to help 
them, in the hope that on reaching a Spanish port the 
Frenchmen might fall into some trap and himself and his 
companions escape. 

At last the mutineers arrived off Jamaica, and even be- 
fore making a harbour sent the pilot ashore with two of 
the prisoners, who bore letters to the Governor, from 
one of the Spaniards aboard the vessel, asking for food. 
The answer was not long in coming. At dawn of the 
third day after they had entered the harbour, a frigate 
and two vessels bore down upon them. The bark with 
a small number of the mutineers succeeded in making its 
escape, but the large vessel, with thirty-three of the 
Frenchmen, was forced to surrender, and its crew were ulti- 
mately all hanged as pirates.^ The bark with the escaped 
mutineers took a northerly course, and passing in sight 
of Havana, the pilot and trumpeter with some of the 
sailors who had been compelled to join them, being again 
short of provisions, determined to ascend the Bahama 

' " Juez de comision." 

^De Silva to Philip II., Oct. i, 1565, Col. Doc. Inedit. Espaiia, tomo 
Ixxxvii., p. 197. English translation in Spanish State Papers, 155S-1567, 1. 
Elizabeth, p. 486. Confesion que se tomo a un hombre que bino de la 
Ysla de Cuba sobre lo tocante a la Florida, 1551-1565. MS. Arch. Gen. 
de Indias, Patronato, est. I, caj. i, leg. 1/19, ramo 5. The deponent was 
the pilot of the vessel captured by the mutineers. See Appendix I, 



The Second French Colony S^ 

Channel by night, while their companions slept, return 
to Fort Caroline, and make what terms they could with 
Laudonniere. On the 25th of March, 1 565, the neighbour- 
hood of Fort Caroline was reached. After some parley- 
ing Laudonniere consented to receive them back, but the 
four ringleaders were condemned to be hung. Their 
sentence, however, was commuted to shooting, and their 
bodies were hung from gibbets about the mouth of the 
haven.' 

Laudonniere, who had been confined on board the bark 
by the mutineers, was released, on their departure, by 
Ottigny and returned to the fort. Matters now pro- 
gressed with no especial event for some time. The fort 
was strengthened against attack from the natives, and two 
other barks were constructed. One day two Spaniards, 
who had been wrecked on the Martyr Islands some fifteen 
years before, and had lived in servitude to Carlos at the 
south-western end of the peninsula, were brought into the 

1 De Silva to Philip II., Nov. 5, 1565, Co/. Doc. Inedit. Espana, tomo 
Ixxxvii., p. 230. English translation in Spanish State Papers, 1558-1567, 
I. Elizabeth, p. 503; Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 63-70; Hak., vol. ii., 
pp. 473-479. Le Moyne relates that on the arrival of the mutineers at the 
mouth of the St.' John's they were overpowered by a party sent out by Lau- 
donniere ; De Bry, Brevis Nar ratio, pp. 20, 21. Dr. Shea, in The Catholic 
Church in Colonial Days (New York, 1886, p. 136), infers that the muti- 
neers put to death the Spaniards on board of the boat which they captured. 
Fortunately for the humanity of the Frenchmen the Spanish pilot distinctly 
negatives Dr. Shea's inference, so far as his own crew is concerned, stating 
that it was put in the hold of the vessel and evidently escaped when the ship 
was recaptured. The pilot does not say whether or not there were any 
Spanish prisoners on board the bark in which part of the mutineers fled. It 
is only fair to Dr. Shea to say that he did not have before him the testimony 
which is presented in these papers, as to the fate of " the cruisers from 
Caroline and Ribaut." But he is unfortunate in charging Ribaut, who was 
absent in France, with the responsibility of sending out cruisers, whereas 
Laudonniere, our only source of information as to the origin of these pirates, 
says they were mutineers. The statement of some of the mutineers, that 
they had been sent out by Laudonniere in search of food, is open to doubt, 
as it was probably made with a view to obtaining better treatment at the 
hands of their captors. 



84 The Spanish Settlements 

French settlement, after experiencing various vicissitudes 
under one and another Indian chief. They regaled Lau- 
donni^re's ears with the usual tale of treasure, which in 
this instance was probably founded on fact, the gold and 
silver having been saved from Spanish vessels wrecked 
along the coast ; they told him of the annual sacrifice at 
harvest time of a human victim selected from among the 
Spaniards who had been cast ashore among the Indians; 
and they tickled the Frenchman's imagination with a 
romantic story of Indian love and ambush.' 

Captain Vasseur was sent up the coast to Port Royal 
and renewed his former friendly relations with Audusta.' 
Another excursion was made up the St. John's, where 
the Frenchmen discovered the entrance of a lake, prob- 
ably Lake George,' whose opposite shores, according to 
Indian report, could not be seen even from the tops of 
the highest trees, and on their return visited the pictu- 
resque Drayton Island, called by the Indians Edelano." 
A gentleman from Fort Caroline, who had remained some 
time with Outina, brought back an account of the primi- 
tive method by which the natives recovered the gold from 
the sands of the rivers which flowed down from the moun- 
tains; how the sand was collected in dry, hollow reeds, 
in which, on being shaken, the gold and silver grains be- 
came separated from the sand owing to their greater 
weight.^ Later on a band of soldiers under Ottigny was 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 71 et seq. ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 481-483. 

''■Ibid., p. 74 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 484 ; Le Moyne in De Bry, p. 18. 

^ Fairbanks, Hist, of Florida, p. 125 ; Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Fran- 
faise, p. 177, identifies the lake with Lake Okeechobee. There can be little 
question as to the correctness of Fairbanks. See Appendix J, Maps of the 
French Colony. 

* Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 75 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 485 ; Le Moyne in De 
Bry, pp. 15, ig ; Fairbanks, Hist, of Florida, p. 105. Velasco also mentions 
this island as situated at the outlet of " unalaguna, que bojara ocho leguas." 
— Geografia. p. 168. 

* Laudonniere says "gold or copper." Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 76 ; 
Hak., vol. ii., p. 486 ; Le Moyne in De Bry, p. 19. This is one of the 



The Second French Colony 85 

sent to assist Outina on one of his expeditions against a 
neighbouring chief. 

So the time passed until the opening of the following 
year (1565), when the French, like the Spaniards before 
them, began to reap the first fruits of their improvidence 
in failing to make sufficient provision against the diminu- 
tion of their store of food. It was the custom of the 
Indians of that region to withdraw into the forests during 
the winter and early spring, where they subsisted by 
hunting until their crops began to ripen ; and the French, 
who had made no plantings against such a contingency, 
but had lived off the maize and beans which they ob- 
tained by barter from the natives, were suddenly thrown 
upon their own resources. For a while they made out 
to live upon the stores which Laudonni^re had thought- 
fully laid by, but with the approach of the month of 
May, the first gnawing of famine began to be felt ; for the 
soldiers with characteristic thoughtlessness had lavishly 
consumed the food in expectation of the arrival of suc- 
cour from France, which did not come. A little fish was 
obtained from the natives, who had by this time returned 
to their homes, but the Indians were now without maize 
or beans, having used what remained to them in planting 
for the coming season, and the soldiers, enfeebled by 
hunger and unable to continue to work, wandered dis- 
consolately to the top of the bluff, where Laudonniere 
had dreamed his dream of Paradise, and despairingly 
scanned the surface of the glittering waters for the arrival 
of the ship from France. 

most detailed of the exceedingly rare descriptions of primitive Indian gold- 
mining. Le Moyne, who says the Indians dug ditches in the river in which 
the sand was deposited by gravity, has given us a picture of the natives at 
work collecting gold out of the bed of the river in his Eicones, Plate XLI., 
Auri legendi ratio in rivis a montibus Apalatcy decurrentibus. Shipp in his 
Hernando de Soto and Florida, Philadelphia, 1881, p. 526, note, thinks 
these mines were in the north of Georgia, where are now the Georgia gold 
fields, and were probably the same as those of which De Soto was informed. 



86 The Spanish Settlements 

One day followed the other, and as they watched in 
vain, the prolonged anxiety bred within them, with the 
abandonment of hope, its companion despair, and finally 
the determination to leave the inhospitable shore. With 
that they went to work to build a boat for the voyage 
and to enlarge the brigantine, which the mutineers had 
captured from the Spaniards, by raising it two decks 
higher. But this required time and "there remained 
now the principal, which was to recouer victuals with 
which to sustain vs while our work endured," writes 
Laudonniere.' The commander himself headed an ex- 
pedition in search of food, living the while on berries 
gathered in the forest and the roots of the palmettos 
which grew by the river-bank ; but he was constrained to 
return empty-handed to the fort. The Indians, seeing to 
what straits the colonists were put, had now lost all fear 
of them. They demanded even the shirts off the backs 
of the soldiers in exchange for a single fish, and taunt- 
ingly exclaimed, when the soldiers complained of its ex- 
cessive cost, "If thou make so great account of thy 
merchandise, eat it, and we will eat our fish," "Then 
they fell out laughing and mocked vs with open throat." " 
And now began the desperate struggle to wrest from the 
Indians enough food to keep body and soul together 
while the brigantine was being completed. Outina, to 
whom they turned in their necessity, pushed his advan- 
tage, sending just sufficient supplies to goad them into ac- 
ceding to his harsh conditions of aiding him against his 
enemies. 

Considering that as the country was to be abandoned, 
the colony would derive no further advantage from the 
continuance of its previous friendly relations with the 
natives, Laudonnifere, who was intent on securing pro- 
visions by force when more pacific means had failed, de- 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 8r ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 491. 
^ Ibid., p. 82 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 492. 



The Second French Colony 87 

termined to seize the person of the Indian chief and hold 
him as a hostage for the food of which they stood in 
such imminent need. Taking two boats, he embarked 
with fifty of his best soldiers, and, descending upon the 
village, carried Outina off as prisoner; he then signified 
to the natives that he would do their chief no harm, but 
would return him to them in exchange for food. But 
the Indians, accustomed themselves to put their prisoners 
of war to death, mistrusted his promise, and by every art 
of Indian deceit sought to recover their chief, bringing 
the Frenchmen a little fish and cornmeal in order to en- 
tice them into ambush. During the month of May the 
famine became extreme; "for the very riuer had not 
such plentie of fish as it was wont, and it seemed that the 
land and water did fight against vs," says Laudonnifere, 
Even the work upon the boat was delayed. Some 
gathered roots and pounded them to a pulp in mortars ; 
others ground the wood of the sarsaparilla into a meal 
and ate it boiled in water; others went hunting for fowl. 

"Yea, this miserie was so great, that one was found that 
gathered vp among the filth of my house, all the fish bones 
that he could finde, which he dried and beate into powder to 
make bread thereof. The effects of this hidious famine ap- 
peared incontinently among vs, " continues Laudonniere, " for 
our bones eftsoones beganne to cleaue so neere vnto the skinne, 
that the most part of the souldiers had their skinnes pierced 
thorow with them in many partes of their bodies." ' 

About the beginning of June Laudonni&re heard of 
ripe maize up the river, where he went and obtained a 
little, but his soldiers fell sick from eating more of it 
than their weakened stomachs could digest. So the time 
passed wearily, until one day Outina, who still remained 
a prisoner, induced Laudonniere to make another attempt 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 82-85 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 496. See also 
Hawkins's account of the famine in Hakluyt, vol. iv., p. 242. 



88 The Spanish Settlements 

at exchanging him for maize and beans. When the vil- 
lage was finally reached, the previous tactics were repeated 
by the natives, who tried by every strategy known to 
Indian wiles to free their chief and to be avenged of his 
captors. But the Frenchmen saw through these designs, 
and after prolonged negotiations Outina was finally sur- 
rendered and some maize collected. As Ottigny was 
leaving the village by an avenue four hundred paces long 
and planted with great trees on both sides, he was sud- 
denly attacked from ambush by the Indians. Observing 
how the armour protected the bodies of his soldiers, the 
Indians shot at their faces and legs, killir^ two of his 
men and wounding twenty-two. In the mel^e most of 
the corn was lost.' Another serious calamity which now 
befell the colonists was the killing by the Indians of two of 
the carpenters employed on the ship. When the soldiers 
learned that this would still further protract its comple- 
tion, they became so mutinous that they were with dififi- 
culty appeased, and in order to hasten matters it was 
determined to work no more upon the ship, but to con- 
centrate all their efforts on the repairing of the brigan- 
tine. With the energy of despair the houses without the 
fort were demolished, and their woodwork was converted 
into charcoal, and the palisade of the fort on the river 
was also torn down to furnish timber, leaving it defence- 
less on that side. 

On the 3rd of August, while these final preparations 
were being pushed forward with feverish haste, Laudon- 
nifere went out walking on a little hill, "much tormented 
in mind " with conflicting emotions, in which the fact that 
provisions for ten days was all that remained, frustrated 
ambition, and bitter disappointment at the complete 
failure of the colony played no little part. Suddenly 
he descried four sails at sea. "I sent immediately one of 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 88 et seq,; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 498-502 ^ 
Hawkins, Hak., vol. iv., p. 243. 



The Second French Colony 89 

them which were with me to aduertise those of the Fort 
thereof, which were so glad of those newes, that one 
would haue thought them to bee out of their wittes to 
see them laugh and leape for joy." ' After the ships had 
cast anchor, a boat was seen making for land, and Lau- 
donnifere promptly sent an armed man to meet it, and 
drew up his soldiers in readiness for an attack, fearing 
that the strangers might be Spaniards, a fear in which he 
was largely justified if he considered his proximity to the 
route of Spanish commerce, and the presence in his midst 
of the pirates who had sacked and plundered the Spanish 
merchantmen off the neighbouring islands. The new- 
comer proved to be Master John Hawkins, the father of 
the English slave-trade, on his way home from a second 
prosperous venture undertaken with the sanction of the 
Council." He had been capturing negroes on the Guinea 
coast and had sold them to the Spaniards in the West 
Indies at the point of his sword, forcing them with faul- 
con and arquebuse to give him "a testimoniall of his 
good behauiour" ' while there. His ships were the Szual- 
loiv, the Tiger, and Salomon, small vessels of from thirty 
to one hundred and forty tons, and a stately ship of 
seven hundred tons, the Jesus of Lubeck, belonging to 
Queen Elizabeth, which she herself had lent him for the 
adventure.* He had been sailing along the coast for 
several days since sighting Havana, in search of fresh 
water; and now he had sent one of his company ashore 
with a request to be permitted to refill his empty tanks. 
This messenger proved to be one Martin Atinas, of 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 94 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 504. 

'^ Hawkins, Hak., vol. iv., p. 241. According to Hawkins {ibid., p. 239) 
he appears to have reached Fort Caroline about the middle of July and left 
(p. 24) on the 28th, The date of Aug. 3rd is that given by Laudonniere. 

3 Ibid. 233. De Silva to Philip II»., Nov. 15, 1565, Col. Doc. Inedit. 
£spana, tomo Ixxxvii., pp. 28, 29, English translation in Spanish State 
Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, 503. 

^Hawkins, Hak., vol. iv., p. 205 ; Froude, English Seamen, p. 44. 



90 The Spanish Settlements 

Dieppe, who had taken part in Ribaut's first colony, and 
had readily found employment with the adventurous 
Englishman. Atinas was the bearer of two flagons of 
wine and some wheaten bread, a present from Hawkins, 
"which greatly refreshed me, forasmuch as for seuen 
moneths space I neuer tasted a drop of wine," writes 
Laudonnifere, who generously divided it among his 
soldiers.' 

Next day Hawkins himself came up the river and 
was entertained by Laudonniere in his dismantled fort. 
With French hospitality he killed for his English guest 
some sheep and poultry brought from France, and so 
precious to him that notwithstanding all his "necessities 
and sicknesse," he "would not suffer so much as one 
chicken to be killed." ' And perhaps when the feast was 
over, and "the gentlemen honourably apparelled yet un- 
armed," who attended Hawkins, were seated about in 
the shade listening to his relation, Laudonnifere may have 
solaced them with a Floridian custom to which the 
French themselves had become addicted. For 

" the Floridians haue a kinde of herbe dried, who with a cane 
and an earthen cup in the end, with fire, and the dried herbs 
put together, doe sucke thorow the cane the smoke thereof, 
which smoke satisfieth their hunger . . . and this all the 
Frenchmen vsed for this purpose: yet do they holde opinion 
withall, that it causeth water and fleame to void from their 
stomacks. " 

Thus gravely and wisely did Master Hawkins describe his 
first pipeful of tobacco, as he saw the pleasant vapour roll 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 95; Hak., vol. ii., p. 504. Meleneche in 
his deposition (Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 1565, fol. 4b) says the 
colonists " han hecho en este afio despues que llegaron diez barricas o 
quartos de vino, y dicen que salio bueno y de color clarete." Bartram in 
his Travels, p. 87, mentions grape-vines on the St. John's. 

^ Hist, Notable, Basanier, p. 95 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 505. 



The Second French Colony 91 

in fleecy, fantastic clouds from between the lips of his 
French hosts.' 

Hawkins, perceiving the sorry condition of the colony 
and the anxiety of the French to return home, offered to 
transport all the company in his ships to France. The 
complete isolation of the settlers, the extreme difficulties 
of the situation, and the wariness incumbent upon their 
leader in those times, in which the scurviest of tricks were 
played upon each other by nations ostensibly at peace, 
and above all Laudonniere's estimate of the sincerity of 
his English friend, are illustrated in his refusal to accept 
the proffered aid. "For I knewe not how the case stood 
betweene the French and the English," he writes, "and 
although hee promised me on his faith to put mee on land 
in France, before hee would touch England, yet I stood 
in doubt least he would attempt somewhat in Florida in 
the name of his mistresse." ' 

When it became known among the soldiers that 
Hawkins's offer had been refused, there arose such a 
turmoil among them that a council was called, and the 
decision reached to purchase a small ship, which Hawkins 
had offered to give them, after seeing the insufficiency of 
those which they had for the proposed journey. It was 
further decided that its price should be paid in artillery 
and powder, for Laudonnifere feared that if the payment 
were made in the silver which he had collected while in 
Florida, the sight of it might excite the cupidity of the 
English Queen. Hawkins, in place of taking offence at 
the suspicions cast upon him by the flat refusal of the 
Frenchmen, readily consented to the bargain, selling his 
vessel to them at the price which the French themselves 
put upon it. Moved with pity at their distress, he sold 
them a quantity of his provisions, and fifty pairs of shoes 

^ Hak., vol. iv., pp. 244, 245. Le Moyne in Plate XX. of his Eicones 
shows an Indian smoking a pipe and describes it in the legend to the plate. 
^ Hist, Notable, Basanier, p. 96 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 505. 



92 The Spanish Settlements 

for the barefooted soldiers. In payment for these Lau- 
donniere gave him his note of hand, " for which vntil this 
present I am indebted to him," writes the lieutenant. 
Over and above this Hawkins gave them oil and vinegar, 
olives, rice, and biscuits, and made various gifts to the 
French officers, showing such humanity and generosity 
that Laudonniere gratefully exclaims, "I may say that 
we receiued as many courtesies of the Generall as it were 
possible to receiue of any man liuing. Wherein doubt- 
lesse he hath wonne the reputation of a good and charita- 
ble man, deseruing to be esteemed as much of vs all as 
if he had saued all our lives." ' It is one of those mys- 
terious paradoxes in the make-up of a human soul, that 
the doughty slave-trader, who had been stealing negroes 
with fire and sword, packing them like human cattle in 
the holds of his ships, and selling them under the muzzles 
of his guns, dismisses this humane incident in half a 
dozen lines in his own narrative, and that it is only from 
the pen of those whose lives he had saved that we learn 
the striking details. 

Menendez subsequently wrote Philip that at the time 
of Hawkins's visit there were two vessels loaded with 
hides and sugar at Fort Caroline which the French had 
robbed off Yaguana, on the west coast of Hispaniola, and 
had thrown their crews overboard. As the French 
had not enough sailors to man the prizes themselves 
Hawkins, who, after a stay of only a few days, was ready 
to set sail for home, was commissioned by Laudonniere 
to sell their cargoes in France or England, leaving two 
Englishmen at Fort Caroline as hostages for the fulfilment 
of his agreement.^ By the 15th of August the supplies 

• Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 87 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 507. For Hawkins's 
account of this to the Spanish ambassador to England see De Silva to 
Philip II., Oct. 22, 1565, Col. Doc. Indit. Espaiia, tomo Ixxxvii., pp. 218, 
230. English translation in Spanish State Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, 
pp. 495, 503. 

" Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 90. 



The Second French Colony 93 

left by the English and those accumulated by Laudon- 
niere were stored aboard the ship, and only the absence 
of a favourable wind now stood between the colonists 
and their departure for their beloved France.' 

There can be no reasonable doubt that the English vessels referred to in 
the letter were those of John Hawkins, for there is an agreement as to their 
number, the great size of the yestis and the date of Hawkins's visit to La 
Caroline, although no names are mentioned in the letter. The French ac- 
counts make no reference to any such vessels as these two found at La 
Caroline by Menendez. Dr. Shea in The Catholic Church in Colonial Days 
(New York, 1886, p. 140), and in his "Ancient Florida " (in iVarr. a7id 
Crit. Hist. Am., New York, 1886, vol. ii., p. 276), infers that they were 
Spanish vessels, which is not improbable, given the nature of their cargoes. 
' Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 98 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 507. 



CHAPTER V 

THE THIRD FRENCH EXPEDITION 

THROUGHOUT these long days of waiting Coligny 
had not forgotten his plantation, and early in 1565 
preparations were made to relieve it. The necessity was 
all the more pressing, because the very first vessel return- 
ing from Florida had brought with it strange rumours. 
It was said that Laudonniere was disposed to play the 
king, and to resent in a tyrannous manner any interfer- 
ence with his designs; that his men were treated with 
undue cruelty, and that he was currying favour and ad- 
vancement by other means than at the hands of the 
Admiral, writing to the Lords of the Council with the 
promise of sending them gifts of the objects which he 
had found in Florida. And Coligny, himself an austere 
man, was indignant at his having taken a woman with him 
to the distant colony. It boded ill for the fortunes of 
the infant settlement if such a man were left in charge, 
so Jean Ribaut, who was again back in France, was put 
in command of a fleet of seven vessels and given the 
necessary authority to supersede Laudonniere, who, for 
his part, was directed to return to France.' 

Again there gathered a miscellaneous company of ad- 
venturers at the port of Dieppe, including soldiers who 
refused to pay for their lodgings, and who set the town in 
an uproar with their carousings, "preferring to incur the 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 99-102 ; Ilak., vol. ii., pp. 509, 512. \ 

94 



The Third French Expedition 95 

wrath of the waters, rather than laying down their arms, 
to return to their first condition," says Le Challeux " ; 
others, attracted by the report of a land of Cocaigne, 
where the grateful earth yielded up her fruits unscathed 
by the plough, where the heat of the sun was tempered 
to a pleasant ardour, and where frost and hail were un- 
known ; and others by a more sordid desire for gold. 
There were also several gentlemen, among them a rela- 
tive of Admiral CoHgny, and Jacques Ribaut, son of 
Jean, who went in command of one of the ships; six 
Portuguese pilots to direct the fleet, ° and a number of 
artisans with their families." 

The expedition was undertaken with the full knowledge 
and consent of the Queen, who was even thought to have 
an interest in it,* and the usual perfunctory charges were 
given Ribaut not to trespass upon Spanish possessions,^ 
But he had also received a letter from Coligny informing 
him of the intended departure of a Spanish armada with 
probably a like destination and the laconic instructions 
which accompanied the letter left little doubt as to what 
action he should take in the event of an encounter with 
the Spaniards. "Capitaine lohn Ribault," it ran, "as I 
was enclosing vp this letter, I receiued a certaine aduice, 
that Don Pedro Melendes departeth from Spaine to goe 
to the coast of Newe France: see you that you suffer 
him not to encroch vpon you, no more than he would 

' " Hist. Memorable" in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 457. 

' Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 92. 

2 " Hist. Memorable " in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 458. Meras in 
his " Jornadas de Pedro Menendez de Aviles " (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
i., p. 83) says Ribaut forbade Roman Catholics to embark under pain of 
death, and allowed only Protestant books to be taken along. Barrientos 
in his " Vida y Hechos de Pero Menendez de Aviles," in Genaro Garcia's 
Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 33, makes substantially the same 
statement. 

■* Philip II. to Alava, June 2, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K (2), 1504. 
Alava to Philip II., June 8, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat. Paris, K, 1504 (6). 

* Le Challeux in " Hist. Memorable" in Gaffarel, pp. 457, 470. 



96 The Spanish Settlements 

that you should encroch vpon him." ' Men^ndez, writ- 
ing to PhiHp some five months later, told him that 
Ribaut carried orders to fortify a position on the Martyr 
Islands, where he could command the Bahama Channel 
so that no vessel could pass except under his eyes. Six 
galleys were to be stationed there, with the object of 
seizing Havana, freeing the negroes, and subsequently 
those of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Tierra Firme. 
And it was also proposed to build a fort at the Bay of 
Ponce de Leon, because of its proximity to New Spain 
and Honduras.' 

On the loth of May the three hundred colonists ^ em- 
barked aboard the ships, the names of five of which are 
still known to us, the Trinity, Jean Ribaut's flag-ship, the 
Union, the Trout, the Shoulder of Muttoi, and the Pearl, 
the last of which went in command of Jacques Ribaut; 
but they were detained until the 22nd, awaiting supplies. 
Then came so violent a storm that the sailors cut their 
cables and ran before the wind. Three days more were 
spent in Havre pending the arrival of news from Dieppe, 
and over two weeks at the Isle of Wight, in expectation 
of a favourable wind. It was a delay fraught with fatal 
consequence to French enterprise in Florida, for had 
Ribaut reached there in season, the colonists would have 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. io6 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 516. Le Moyne, 
who also gives this letter (De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 23) says it was writ- 
ten in Coligny's own hand. 

^ Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, toino ii., pp. 
29 and 107, 108. Menendez says he was so informed by a Frenchman, 
whose life he had spared at the capture of Fort Caroline. 

^ " Hist. Memorable" in Gaflarel, p. 459 ; Philip II. to Alava, June 2, 
1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (2), says 500 soldiers. Mendoza in his 
" Relacion " (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 442), says ycx) men and 200 
women. Gaflarel (LList. de la Floride Fran^aise, p. 145), thinks they may 
have amounted to 1000. Silva in his letter of June 25, 1565, to PhiHp II., 
referring to the presence of Ribaut's fleet in Portland harbour, says they 
were 1200 {Col. Doc. Lnedit. Espaiia, tomo Ixxxvii., p. 133, English transla- 
tion in Spanish State Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, p. 242.) 



The Third French Expedition 97 

been in a far more advantageous position to resist the 
attack of the Spaniards than afterwards proved to be the 
case, and the reinforcement which he brought would cer- 
tainly have greatly retarded if not entirely diverted the 
nemesis which finally overtook them. 

Meanwhile the colonists on the St. John's were im- 
patiently awaiting a favourable opportunity to abandon 
the country, and on August 28, 1565, the wind and tide 
being propitious, the two ships were about to set sail for 
France, when their captains, Vasseur and Verdier, ob- 
served some sails at sea, of which they promptly informed 
their commander. An armed boat was immediately de- 
spatched to learn who the strangers might be, and the 
sentinels, who had climbed the highest trees to follow 
their movements, reported that the great boat of the 
ships appeared to be chasing the small boat sent out to 
meet them, which had already passed beyond the bar at 
the mouth of the river. Again the soldiers were drawn 
up in line, lest the newcomers should prove to be enemies, 
and through all the sweltering day and the long watches 
of the following night the colonists awaited in painful 
suspense the report of their messenger; for though the 
small boat had come up with the ships by two o'clock, it 
had entirely failed to send back any report. The follow- 
ing morning at about eight or nine o'clock seven boats 
were seen entering the river, among them that of Lau- 
donnifere's messenger of the previous day. The boats 
were full of soldiers, each carrying an arquebus, and wear- 
ing a morion on his head ; silently and in battle array 
they moved past the outposts on the bluff, vouchsafing 
no kind of reply to the eager enquiry of the sentry as to 
who they might be. Unable to control his suspense at 
these mysterious movements, one of the sentinels fired a 
shot at them, which fell short of the mark, owing to the 
distance between him and the boats. Still no reply, and 
Laudonniere, warned of their approach, placed each of 



98 The Spanish Settlements 

his men at his post, and trained two small field-pieces, 
which still remained to him, in readiness to fire upon the 
advancing line. Nearer still drew the silent company, 
making directly for the fort, when to the intense surprise 
and relief of the colonists Captain Jean Ribaut was recog- 
nised by his great beard ' as the leader of the advancing 
host. The sight of his well-known face quickly dispelled 
the fear which his warlike array had excited, and the 
arquebuses, but a moment before turned against him, 
now welcomed him "with a gentle volley of shot, where- 
unto he answered with his." * 

Ribaut soon came ashore and Laudonnifere conducted 
him to his own house, where he entertained him with the 
store which Hawkins had left behind. After the demon- 
strations of joy had subsided, Ribaut drew his lieutenant 
aside, out of the fort, and informed him of the charges 
against him, while at the same time he delivered to him 
the letter of recall from Coligny. This was couched in 
no ambiguous terms as to the Admiral's personal friend- 
ship for him, but required his return to France to clear 
his credit.^ Laudonnifere readily disposed of the first 
two charges, observing, with much reason, that in a new 
country, and with such a company as had come to in- 
habit it, authority must be strictly enforced in order to 
retain that ascendency over its various elements that was 
necessary to the maintenance of order. To the charge 
of underhanded dealings with the Council, he replied, 
that he had but written to them in conformity with in- 
structions received from the Admiral himself and with 
the sole object of securing their influence in dealing with 
the Queen Mother for the continuance of the enterprise. 
And finally as for the woman he explained that she was 

' Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 103; Hak., vol. ii., p. 513. 
^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. loi ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 510. 
* Coligny's letter is given in full in Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 102 ; Hak^ 
vol. ii., p. 511. 



The Third French Expedition 99 

but a poor chambermaid, whom he had taken up in an 
inn to oversee his household, and to attend to the poultry 
and sheep which he had brought over with him. He 
dwelt upon the necessity of her ministrations to the sick 
and to himself in his own illness, and added, with great 
naivete, that "all my men thought so well of her, that at 
one instant there were sixe or seuen which did demand 
her of mee in marriage." ' 

Ribaut, after hearing Laudonni^re's explanations, 
urged him to remain in Florida and generously offered to 
share the command with him, leaving him in charge of 
Fort Caroline, while he himself would withdraw and build 
another fort elsewhere. This Laudonniere declined with 
much dignity, saying that there could be but one Lieu- 
tenant of the King, and here the matter rested for awhile. 
But the blow was a severe one to him, falling as it did out 
of a clear sky, and at the very moment when he had 
thought to see an end to all he had endured in the service 
of his country. The false reports preyed upon his mind, 
and he fell sick of a fever which continued for eight or 
nine days. 

As four of his vessels proved to be too large to cross 
the bar, Ribaut anchored them about a mile off shore, 
where the water was shallow. His three smaller vessels, 
one of which was the Pearl, commanded by his son 
Jacques, he sent across the bar, the Pearl going as high 
up as the fort, near which she anchored.'' The colonists 
were now disembarked and the provisions brought ashore 
and put away in a storehouse, which had been constructed 
about two hundred paces from the fort near the bake- 
house, which also stood without in order to avoid danger 
of fire.^ The neighbouring chiefs came in to visit Ribaut 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 102, 103 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 522. Laudon- 
niere says that one of his men did marry her after their return to France. 

* La Moyne in Brevis Narratio, pp. 22, 26. 

^ Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 104 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 514 ; " Hist. Memo- 
rable," Gaffarel, p. 461. 

LOf C. 



loo The Spanish Settlements 

and to welcome him after their fashion ; and in their 
mimicry of the French would stretch out their hands 
reverently to the sky, when the bell of the fort rang for 
prayers. ' 

Ribaut had scarcely been a week at Fort Caroline, 
when on Tuesday, September 4th, '^ at about four o'clock 
in the afternoon, some soldiers, who had been walking on 
the beach, brought him word that they had seen six ships 
steering in the direction of the Trinity and her three com- 
panions, which lay outside the bar. There were but a 
few men in charge of these, for most of the crews were 
ashore, engaged upon the restoration of the fort and the 
houses to which Ribaut had turned his attention. On 
hearing the astounding news, Ribaut and a large number 
of the colonists hurried to the shore which they reached 
in time to learn that the strange vessels had anchored 
alongside their own ships, whereupon the French vessels 
had cut their cables and sailed away, with the others in 
pursuit. Straining their eyes through the limpid air of 
the September night, which had just been cleared by a 
thunder-storm, Ribaut and his companions could see 
their hulls disappearing below the horizon.' The fleet 
which had so unexpectedly presented itself was that of 
Pedro Men^ndez de Avil^s, Admiral of Spain, and one 
of the most accomplished seamen and commanders of 
the day, who had been sent by Philip II. to drive the 
French out of Florida. 

' " Hist. Memorable," ibid., p. 463. 

' Laudonniere (Hak., vol. ii., p. 514), says Sept. 4th. 

^ Le Moyne in De Bry, p. 22. 



CHAPTER VI 

PHILIP'S NOTICE TO FRANCE 

WHILE events were thus shaping themselves in dis- 
tant Florida Philip was not kept in ignorance of 
the activity of the French by his ambassador, Don Frances 
de Alava, who had succeeded Chantone at the Court of 
Charles IX. Every movement of Laudonnifere was nar- 
rowly watched, and the King was duly informed of his 
sailing.' From Normandy, from Brittany, from Nantes, 
from Bordeaux, and from Bayonne reports continued to 
arrive of the arming of vessels whose destination was 
either for Florida, or to rob the fleets from the Indies.* 
The piracies on the high seas continued with unabated 
vigour because "the first thing that a pirate did after he 
had robbed a vessel of 20,000 or 30,000 ducats was to 

' Alava to Philip II., June 7, 1564, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1501 (85). 

* Alava to Philip II., Jan. 2, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 (28) ; 
Barchino to Philip II., March 21, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (58) ; Alava to 
Philip II., Apr. 27, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (79); same to same, July 12, 
1565, MS. ibid., K, 1504 (45). The Nantes expedition was under the com- 
mand of the son of the Mayor of Nantes, and Philip ordered that a copy of 
the report be laid before the Council of the Indies. Alava to Philip II., 
Jan. 18, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (33). The Bayonne expedition was being 
armed by the eldest son of Montluc. Alava to Philip II., Jan. 18, 1565, MS. 
ibid., K, 1503 (33). A month later he applied to Alava for a license, and 
on the refusal of the ambassador to give it, he obtained one from the Queen 
Mother; same to same, Feb. 20, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (50). In the 
ensuing May the father gave his word that the son would not go to Florida; 
same to same. May 26, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (loi), and the expedition 
was finally abandoned; same to same, June 4, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1504(4). 



I02 The Spanish Settlements 

distribute 10,000 or 15,000 of them among those who were 
to judge him, or among their children, or to place the 
money in some matter in which they were interested." ' 
Protests on the part of the Spanish ambassador were re- 
ceived with evasive excuses,^ or contemptuously set aside. 
Coligny and Catherine continued to cajole him with empty 
promises that the pirates and robbers would receive con- 
dign punishment, the Queen's real object appearing to be 
that her subjects should arm themselves in whatever way 
they pleased, provided that they profited by so doing.' 

In the early spring of 1565, the news began to reach 
Spain of the depredations committed by the French 
colonists,^ who represented to their Spanish captors that 
they had been sent out by Laudonniere in search of food.* 
By April the King was already aware of the equipment 
and destination of Ribaut's reinforcements,^ of whose de- 
parture for Florida and visit to Plymouth he was also in- 
formed/ The situation was already assuming serious 

' Alava to Philip II., Oct. 31, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (72). 

^Chantone to Philip II., Jan. i8, 1563, MS. ibid., K, 1500(81), fol. 5 ; 
Alava to Philip II., April 27, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (79); Alava to 
Francisco de Erasso. May 7, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (88). 

'Alava to Philip II., Feb. 20, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1503 (50). 

* Rojomonte's deposition, made February 28, 1565, in Noticias de la Pobla- 
cion que habian hecho los Franceses en la Florida. MS. Arch. Gen. de 
Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, caj. I, leg. 1/19, ro. 14; Noriega to Philip 
II., March 29, 1565, MS. Direc, de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo 
xiv.. Doc. No. 33, fol. I. 

^ Deposition of Rojomonte in Noticias de la PoblaciSn, etc., fol. 2 ; Con- 
fesion que se tomo a un hombre que bino de la Ysla de Cuba sobre lo tocante 
a la Florida, 1565. MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, 
caj. I, leg. 1/19, ro. 5, p. 5. 

* Avis du due d'Albe, April 11, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1503 (69). 
Barrientos in his " Vida y Hechos de Pedro Menendez de Aviles" i^Dos Re- 
laciones de la Florida, por Genaro Garcia, Mexico, 1902, p. 33) says Philip 
was also advised of the preparations of Ribaut by Don Jose de Guevara, 
Viceroy of Navarre. 

■" Aviles to Philip II., May 18, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 66; 
Alava to Philip II., June 8, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (6) ; De 
Silva to Philip II., June 25, 1565, Col. Doc. Inedit. Espana, tomo Ixxxix., 



Philip's Notice to France 103 

proportions; for the "pirates of Normandy and Brittany- 
were so ravenous in their greed for the Indian fleets" 
that they threatened to create graver complications than 
those involved in the mere question of the title to 
Florida, which might even lead to a war between the two 
nations.' 

The denial of Philip's abstract right of possession was 
in itself sufficient to arouse the ire of the Spanish King, 
but the renewed attempt to invade the country was of 
even more urgent significance. If the reader will consult 
the map of Florida, and recall what has been said in a 
previous chapter of the route pursued by the return 
treasure galleons, he will at once recognise that if Ribaut's 
colony at Port Royal was considered so potential a danger 
to the fleets as to induce Philip to send Manrique to up- 
root it, the site selected by Laudonnifere was fraught with 
far more immanent peril to their safety. It was at the 
very mouth of the Bahama Channel, where the ships were 
compelled to proceed with the greatest caution on account 
of the current, the inhospitable coast, and the prevalence 
at certain seasons of tempestuous weather. Not only 
did it threaten the fleets, but its nearness to Cuba and 
Hispaniola, to Jamaica and Tierra Firme, enabled the 
French, in the event of war between the two countries, 
to attack and plunder this region long before succour 
could be sent from Spain. And to crown all, while both 
countries were still at peace, the colony had already be- 
come a nest of pirates, and its settlers were beginning to 
plunder the neighbouring islands, while their sovereign 
turned a deaf ear to every protest of the Spaniards, and 
closed her eyes to the actions of her subjects. 

p. 128. English translation Spanish State Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, 
p. 242. 

1 Alava to Philip II., May 7, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1503 (88). 
Barchino in his letter to Alava of March 21, 1565, calls them " queste gente 
piene de vana gloria." 



I04 The Spanish Settlements 

There was no ambiguity in the interpretation which 
the Spaniards gave to the situation, and from every side 
Philip was assailed with letters sounding the note of alarm 
and advising prompt action. Before the French had set 
foot in Florida, Menendez had warned Philip of the risks 
which would be incurred by their presence there.' Again, 
at a later date, he had sought to arouse his religious 
fanaticism by impressing upon him the ready sympathy 
which would arise between the Indians and the English 
or French, "a Lutheran people, because the Indians and 
they are of almost the same faith." "I am certain," he 
writes, "that the object of those who went to settle 
Florida was to possess those islands, and impede the 
navigation of the Indies, which they could do with the 
greatest ease, having settled or being about to settle 
the other Florida"; and he reiterated his fear of their 
stirring up an insurrection among the negroes.'^ 

Chantone had pointed out how Ribaut's first settle- 
ment threatened the fleets from its proximity to the 
Bahamas and the difficulty of expelling the French if 
once they obtained a foothold.^ Alava had given a like 
warning on the departure of Laudonnifere.^ Barchino 
wrote that the intention of the French was to establish a 
new kingdom in the Indies.' Granvelle, after inform- 
ing him that the French had constructed two forts in 

' Pero Menendez (Aviles) sobrel Remedio pa q haya muchos nabios. 
Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 28,366, fol. 296. 

^ " Memorial" (undated) in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 322, 324. 
This memorial appears to have been written during the interval between 
his second and third voyages and before Ribaut's first settlement, for on 
p. 323, Menendez speaks of " la Florida" in its largest extension, referr- 
ing, it would seem, to the French settlements in Canada; and but two 
lines farther he writes of the possibilities should the French settle " la otra 
Florida." 

3 Chantone to Philip II., Jan. 24, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1500 
(43), fol. lb. 

* Alava to Philip II., June 7, 1564, MS. ibid., K, 1501 (85). 

^Barchino to Philip II., March 21, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (58). 



Philip's Notice to France 105 

Florida which it would be no easy matter to take, had 
added : 

" For if there are no Spaniards to drive them out, there are 
over forty thousand men in France of which it is necessary to 
rid the country. Every day their proverb becomes but too 
true, when they say that with two things they can make sure 
of the Spanish King: He has no money, and we will arrive and 
provide for everything in season." ' 

Noriega but echoed the prevalent opinion, and tersely- 
defined the situation: "For the sum of all that can be 
said in the matter, is that they put the Indies in a cruci- 
ble, for we are compelled to pass in front of their port, 
and with the greatest ease they can sally out with their 
armadas to seek us, and easily return home when it suits 
them." Act promptly, he advised, before the Admiral 
of France can forestall you, "and seeing that they are 
Lutherans, as the three French prisoners affirm, it is 
not needful to leave a man alive, but to inflict an exem- 
plary punishment, that they may remember it forever." * 
Philip waited neither for Noriega's letter nor for the final 
preparations of Ribaut's fleet. Indeed it appears that 
his determination had been already reached shortly after 
the arrival of three of the first mutineers from Fort Caro- 
line, captured in Cuba, who had been sent to Spain in a 
dispatch-boat, bringing with them the conclusive evidence 
of the French depredations in the neighbouring Spanish 
islands.^ In the latter part of March he had already 

' Granvelle to Philip II., June 2, 1565, Ljttres et papiers d' Etat du Cardi- 
nal de Granvelle, tome ix., p. 248. 

* Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 1565. MS. Direc. de Hidrog. Madrid, 
Col. Navarretc, tomo xiv., Doc. No. 33, fols. 2, 3, 5, " no es menester dexar 
hombre." On the importance of the danger of a settlement in the Bahama 
Passage see also " Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la Florida" by 
Hernando de Escalante Fontanedo, Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo v., p. 
545 ; "Ancient Florida" by John Gilmary Shea in Narr, and Crii. Hist. 
Am., vol. ii., p. 254. 

^ Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 1565, fol. 5. 



io6 The Spanish Settlements 

selected the man best fitted for the carrying out of his 
intentions and invested him with full power to execute 
his will upon the intruders. 

About the end of March or the beginning of April he 
had learned from Alava of the preparations which Ribaut 
was making in France for the relief of Laudonnifere's 
colony, and he turned for advice to one of his councillors, 
a man destined in the course of the next few years to 
achieve a fame for cruelty and bloodshed second to but 
few in history ; a man of fearless courage and of fierce 
determination, and a man of great military talent, al- 
though it had as yet scarcely received that recognition to 
which it was entitled. This was Fernando Alvarez de 
Toledo, Duke of Alba. Alba's counsel was brief, con- 
cise, and energetic. It behooved the King to issue orders 
that an armament be equipped with the least possible 
delay to drive the Frenchmen promptly out from where 
they had settled. At the same time the Council of the 
Indies should be ordered to put in writing the reasons 
which justify the King in excluding the French from 
Florida. Such reasons appearing sufficient, the Queen 
Mother should be spoken to in a very bold way to induce 
her not only to cease from sending more reinforcements, 
but also to recall the settlers who were already there. 
Alava should then be directed to urge a decision upon 
the matter, and in the event of none beinc, forthcoming, 
Philip should send a member of his Council to treat of it. 

It had already been arranged that Isabella of Savoy, 
Philip's wife, should replace her husband in the inter- 
view with Catherine de' Medici which was to take place at 
Bayonne in June, and which Catherine herself had sought 
in order to confer with him on important matters of 
state; and Alba craftily advised that the solution of the 
difficulty should be urged previous to the conference 
upon which Catherine was so intent.' Philip was not 

' Avis du ducd'Albe, April ii, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1503(69). 



Philip's Notice to France 107 

slow to follow the advice thus given, Don Juan de 
Acuna, Captain-General of Guipuzcoa, was dispatched 
in person to verify the particulars of the French 
preparations, and Alava was directed to report further 
details.' 

While awaiting the arrival of fuller information the 
question of Philip's title to Florida was formally laid be- 
fore the Council of the Indies, which rendered its opinion 
in writing on the 5th of May, confirming it in every de- 
tail. It was founded, said the Council, upon the right 
and title conveyed to him by 

" the bull of Pope Alexander, to whom, as Vicar of Our 
Saviour, it pertains to procure the conversion of all the 
heathen to his Holy Catholic Faith, and [who] to this end 
could appoint a Supreme Christian Prince over all the native 
Kings and Lords of all the Indies, . . . and thus he 
selected and chose the Kings of Castile and of Leon. Con- 
vinced of their zeal and Christianity, and aware of the great 
expense to which they had been put in beginning the dis- 
coveries with their people and fleets, he granted them the 
Lordship over all that had been or should be discovered 
within the limits set forth in the said bull, within which is the 
said Florida; and for the same reason he prohibited and was 
able to prohibit, under the penalties therein contained, that 
any other should enter them or send people to them without 
license from the said Kings of Castile and of Leon. And 
possession was taken of the said Province in the name of 
Your Majesty in many and diverse parts of it by Angel de 
Villafane in the same region and Port which the French now 
occupy. . . ." 

' " Consulta hecha al Rey por el Consejo Real de las Indias en 5 de Mayo 
de 1565 sobre el apresto de los 500 soldados, y Navios, y vituallas que Su 
Magestad mando hacer para el viage a la Florida a cargo del General Pero 
Menendez de Aviles, con motivo de los 16 Navios que se entendio se arm- 
aban en Abra de Gracia, y otros Puertos de aquella costa, con 2 M soldados 
y mucha provision de vituallas y municiones para ir a la Florida." MS. 
Direc. de Hidrog, Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv., Doc. No. 35, 



io8 The Spanish Settlements 

" It also appears that possession was taken of the said 
Province of Florida in the name of Your Majesty, in the 
same region which the French now occupy, by Guido de 
Labazares in the year 1558. . . . And there is also infor- 
mation of the taking possession of the said Province in the name 
of Your Majesty on other occasions, although the evidences of 
such have not yet been found . . . and since the year 
15 10 onward, Fleets and Vessels of these Xingdoms, have 
gone to occupy the said Florida in the name of Your Majesty 

for in the said year two Vessels of the Island of His- 
paniola, which discovered it, went there, and in the year 1522 
Juan Ponce went to its discovery . . . and afterwards 
the Licenciate Lucas Vazquez de Aylon [su], and after Aylon, 
Narvaez, and after Narvaez, Hernando de Soto; all Captains 
and sent under the instruction and command of Your Majesty, 
and of your predecessors. And even had the said possessions 
not been taken. Your Majesty acquired the dominion of the 
whole of the said Province by the bull and donation of Pope 
Alexander, because his Holiness is Prince of the Church 

and for these reasons, which are the chief ones, and 
for other reasons which could be rehearsed, it appears to the 
Council that Your Majesty's title is very clear. . . . And 
we pray, as we have done at other times, that it may please 
Your Majesty to observe, that if the French remain in Florida, 
as they [now] are, they can impede the passage of all the ships 
which come from the Indies, which would be a matter of great 
inconvenience." * 

Notwithstanding the report that the French armament 
was not as extensive as the Council had at first been led 
to believe, and that no details had as yet been received 

' " Parecer del Consejo Real de las Indias, dirigido al Reyconfecha 5 de 
Mayo de 1565, sobre el derecho que tiene S. M. a las Provincias de la 
Florida." MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Co/. Navarrete, tomo xiv.. Doc. 
No. 34. There is an abridged Spanish version entitled Avis du Conseil 
des Indes au sujet des droits de la Couronne d'Espagne sur la Floride. 
Bayonne, 18 juin, 1565. MS. in Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (19), and there is 
also a short notice of it in Recucil de Pieces sur la Floride., par H. Ternaux- 
Compans, Paris, 1871, p. 153. 



Philip's Notice to France 109 

from Acufia and Alava, it rendered a decree on the 
same day, re-forming the armada that was to sail for 
Florida, "because as the port of the French is in the 
Channel of Bahama, which is the passage of the Indies, 
it is of great importance to the service of Your Majesty 
to drive that people out from there." ' A letter received 
from Alava on the day of the Council had informed the 
King that the French were already aware of the size and 
destination of the Spanish armada which was to sail for 
Florida, and that this knowledge might have a salutary 
effect upon their activity and induce them to abandon 
the enterprise. In view of this Philip prudently post- 
poned the increase of the fleet until the arrival of the 
fuller reports from Acuiia and Alava. ^ Alava sent Doctor 
Gabriel de Enveja to Madrid to report to the Council 
of the Indies, and himself left for the conference at 
Bayonne. On his way thither his religious suscepti- 
bilities became so confounded at the expected visit of an 
emissary of the Grand Turk to the French sovereigns, 
that he seriously informed Philip of his suspicions that 
Ribaut's fleet was destined to Florida, because France 
had sold it to the Turk! ' 

On the very verge of the conference Philip finally com- 
manded Alava to speak to the Queen Mother on the sub- 
ject, complaining of Ribaut's armament, that it had been 
undertaken at her instigation, and expressing Philip's 
surprise that notwithstanding the friendship existing be- 
tween the Most Christian King, her son, and himself, and 
the treaties of peace between them, she should endeavour 
to conquer a province to which he held the title. 

' " Consulta hecha al Rey por el Consejo Real de las Indias en 5 de Mayo 
de 1565," etc. MS. Direc. de Hidrog. , Madrid, Col. Navarreie, tomo xiv.. 
Doc. No. 35. 

* Philip II. 's marginal notes on the Constilta hecha al Rey en ^ de Mayo 
de 136^, etc., and see Alava to Philip II., Oct. 31, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., 
Paris, K, 1504 (72). 

^ Alava to Philip II., May 28, 15O5, MS. ibid., K, 1503 (106). 



no The Spanish Settlements 

"And if we have dissimulated until now in urging her, or 
in pressing matters concerning other vessels which we have 
heard have gone to Florida, it has been because we believed 
that they were corsairs, and went to rob without the orders or 
command of either herself or the King, her son; and that I 
had given orders that such should be chastised, as it is reason- 
able that infractors of the public peace should be, who under- 
take such enterprises without the order and command of their 
King." 

If Ribaut had already set sail, Alava was directed to say 
nothing on the subject to Catherine, but to await the 
arrival of the Duke of Alba, who was to leave in two days 
to accompany the Queen of Spain on the visit to her 
mother.' 

Philip in this letter was pursuing his habitual crafty 
and disingenuous methods. If Ribaut had sailed, the 
question could be more effectively solved by blows in 
Florida than by words at Bayonne. Meanwhile it was 
important that the antagonism of Catherine should not 
be aroused in view of the scheme for the simultaneous 
extermination of all heretics in both dominions, which 
his Queen, Isabella, and Alba had been instructed to 
bring about through their interview with Catherine.* 
As Ribaut had already set sail, the message was not de- 
livered, and Alava was obliged to resort to his imagina- 
tion to explain the contents of the letter, the arrival of 
which had so excited Catherine's curiosity "that she sent 
me a hundred persons to enquire what Your Majesty's 
post had brought," writes the ambassador." 

While Alba was negotiating at Bayonne, Alava was 
giving ear to every extraordinary rumour which French 
wit could devise, and on the 22nd of June wrote Philip 

' Philip II. to Alava, June 2, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1504 (2). 
^ Rise of the Dutch Republic \)^ ^. L. Motley, vol. i., p. 476; Hist.de 
France par Henri Martin, 4«'"« edit., Paris, 1857, tome ix,, pp. 189-194. 
2 Alava to Philip II., June 8, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (6). 



Philip's Notice to France m 

that he had received a letter from Normandy informing 
him that the one hundred and fifty Frenchmen who 
garrisoned the fort in Florida, driven by hunger, had 
sallied out in search of provisions, and had all, with the 
exception of six, been eaten up by the Indians. ' ' It were 
indeed good news," he writes, "and the more so, that 
these [Frenchmen] are so set upon going on that enter- 
prise, that it may abate their fury." ' 

Philip, meanwhile, had considered the expediency of 
sending a special envoy to treat of the Florida question, 
as suggested by Alba, and had come to the conclusion 
that the presence of a member of his Council on such a 
mission would betray too great a lack of confidence in 
the sincerity of the French king to justify the proceed- 
ing. He thereupon informed the Duke of his determina- 
tion to avoid a step which would give the matter so much 
prominence, but enclosed him a copy of the decision 
reached by the Council of the Indies as to his title, and 
directed him to introduce the subject incidentally when 
the proper occasion arose, presenting the unreasonableness 
of the steps which the French were taking, and urging 
them to revoke Ribaut's commission and to disarm his 
vessels. But the news of the departure of the French 
reinforcements, followed by Alava's cautious avoidance of 
the subject in compliance with the royal order, wrought a 
change in his plan, and he added a postscript in his own 
hand, leaving any further action entirely within the 
discretion of the Duke of Alba.° 

The latter, who, on the receipt of the letter, was al- 
ready at Bayonne, approved of Philip's policy, and did 
not broach the subject of Florida to the Queen Mother, 
because, Ribaut having already sailed, a better opportunity 

' Alava to Philip II., June 22, 1565. MS. ibid., K, 1504 (23). 

* Philip to Alba, Madrid, June 15, 1565, Ntievos Autdgrafos de CrisiSbal 
Coldn y Kelaciottes de Ultramar ; La Duquesa de Berwick y de Alba, 
Madrid, 1902, p. 59. 



112 The Spanish Settlements 

might arise for treating the question in the interval be- 
tween the conference and the departure of the succour 
which France expected to send in September or October. 
He also feared the effect of its discussion upon certain 
French counsellors of "infamous views," who, as he 
wrote his King, learning Philip's sentiments on the sub- 
ject, "might turn against the Catholics and say to the 
latter: Since Your Majesty was somewhat offended at 
this, what confidence could they have that you would 
assist them in graver matters?" And finally, having 
announced that the sole subject under discussion at the 
conference would be that of the Faith, he thought it 
would be inconsistent to raise another.* 

It is impossible not to be impressed with this last re- 
mark of Alba which he addressed to the King. It meant 
in substance that if the Florida question were raised it 
could be used as a means to inspire the French Catholics 
themselves with distrust in Philip, and indicates without 
disguise how little the religious faith of the Florida colo- 
nists had to do with the motives of the enterprise so far 
as France was concerned, and how clearly this was recog- 
nised by Philip's able counsellor. And it also shows 
how entirely secondary must have been the interest of 
both Philip and his adviser in the religion of the intruders 
to that of the royal title, that the mooting of the Florida 
question could be considered as foreign to that of the 
purification of the Faith in France and Spain." The 

' Alba to Philip II., June 28, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (30). 
" La otra es que auiendose de hazer con ellos el offs° q V. m'* manda podrian 
facilm'^ algunos consejeros q aquf ay de Ruynes intenciones boluerse contra 
los catholicos y dezir'ies que pues en esto V. m<^ mostraua estar sentido que 
confiancia podrian tener que los ayudara en cosas mas graues porq como 
tenemos spto a V. m^ todo su estudio es poner desconfian9a entre V. m^ y 
este Rey, y tambien pareceria repugnar a lo q auemos dicho que es no traer 
ctro negocio q el de la Religion. ..." 

' De Silva, Philip's ambassador to England, in his letter of Oct. 8, 1565 
{Col. Doc. Inedit. Espana, tomo Ixxxix., p. 205. English translation Span- 



Philip's Notice to France 113 

Bayonne Conference therefore proved a failure, not only 
as to French intrusions in Philip's transatlantic domin- 
ions, but also so far as his scheme for purifying both 
countries of heresy was concerned, and the Massacre of 
St. Bartholomew was destined to sleep for seven years 
longer. Catherine successfully met the tactics of Philip's 
emissaries, and persisted in maintaining her power by 
holding the balance between Leaguer and Huguenot. 

On the 29th of June the Spanish armada destined for 
Florida set sail from Cadiz. Philip allowed a sufficient 
time to elapse for it to be well in advance of any fleet 
that the French could send to overtake it, when he finally 
concluded that the moment had come to inform Catherine 
of the steps he had taken. On September 30th he wrote 
Alava : 

"It is now my wish that you speak to the Queen Mother 
and say to her, that having understood that some of her sub- 
jects had gone to Florida to usurp that province, which we 
had discovered and possessed for so many years, I have given 
orders to send and chastise them as thieving pirates and per- 
turbers of the public peace. And having made this provision 
I had thought to have done with it, but that the brotherly re- 
lations which I have had with the Most Christian King, the 
frankness and sincerity that should be observed with him and 
with her in all matters, have induced me not to conceal this 
from them." 

He was ordered to repeat the threadbare demand that 
the French subjects be withdrawn, 

isk stale Papers, 1558-1567, I. Elizabeth, p. 488) writes : " En lo que toca 
a la Florida, bien creo que asi franceses como estos \i. e., the English] han 
deseado meter el pie en ella, mas por estar al paso de los navios que vienen 
de la Nueva Espana y el Peru, que por otro fin." See also Philip II. to 
De Silva, March 22, 1566, Col. Doc. Inedit. Espana, tomo, Ixxxix., p. 276; 
English translation, Spanish State Papers, 1558-1567, I Elizabeth, p. 527; 
and Granvelle to Philip II., June 2, 1565, Lettrcs et papier s d'Etat du Cardi- 
nal Granvelle, tome ix., p. 248, cited in Gaffarel, p. 154. 



114 The Spanish Settlements 

*' for it is not becoming what with the love, conformity, and 
brotherly relations existing between the Most Christian King 
and myself, here, that our subjects yonder should go warring 
the one against the other. And you are to press the Queen 
strongly in regard to this, not with entreaties, but by showing 
her that it is a matter which should not and can not be con- 
cealed, and you are to inform me what answer she gives you." ' 

Not until the 23rd of November, and probably a 
month after Philip had received the news of the arrival 
of the armada in Florida, did Alava at last deliver the 
long-delayed message, Charles, who had been in Anjou, 
made his entry into Tours on the 21st, and the following 
day Alava had an audience with the King and Queen. 
He found them surrounded by "Cardinal de Chatillon 
and all the chief heretics who now move about in this 
Court." Although the subject was not broached at this 
interview, the Queen was not unprepared to meet it. 
She had already learned from Fourquevaux, her ambassa- 
dor in Spain, who stood on the closest terms of intimacy 
with her daughter, Queen Isabella, what Philip's senti- 
ments were. 

"For that matter, Madame," wrote the Ambassador, "I 
have learned from the Queen, your daughter, that which I 
wrote you concerning Florida in my other letter, how that this 
King will not suffer that the French nestle so near his con- 
quests, so that his fleets in going and coming from New Spain 
are constrained to pass in front of them. For which reason if 
they go from France to said country, it is well for them to go 
with sufficient strength and equipped for defence." 

He counselled her "neither to acknowledge nor disavow 
your subjects who are there or who may go thither, for 
before the conquest be decided time will pass, the which 

' Philip II. to Alava, Sept. 30, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (66), 
The substance of this letter first appears in a marginal note on a letter of 
Alava to Philip II. of August 5, 1565, MS. ibid., K, 1504 (57). 



Philip's Notice to France 115 

may bring this Majesty and the Germans into such diffi- 
culties, that he will abandon the said quarrel, or let it 
sleep." ' Catherine had also heard of the arrival of the 
Spanish fleet in Santo Domingo^ and of the reinforce- 
ments that had been sent to it, and her daughter had 
again informed her how near to the heart of the Span- 
ish monarch lay the expulsion of the French from 
Florida.' 

At noon, the 23rd, Alava was again summoned into 
the royal presence. The King was in a large hall with 
all his Court, and began to receive him with still greater 
demonstrations of friendship than at the previous audi- 
ence; so much so, that the Court were amazed at it, 
"especially the heretics." Alava told the King that he 
had come to see his mother, and not him. 

" I assure Your Majesty that he took me by the hand and 
did not leave me until he had conducted me to his mother's 
chamber. His mother was also surrounded by heretics and 
Catholics and many people. She received me with the same 
demonstrations with which her son had received me, but not 
wishing to give me a private audience, saw me there, in public, 
drawing her son very close to her and causing me to draw near 
also. I began to repeat the subjects of Your Majesty's letter, 
when I had so severe a chill that I had to take out the paper 
I carried with me and begin to read it. I was as little able to 
do that, and finally they called I'Aubespine,* but not finding 
him, Saint Sulpice * had to read it. The Queen held her head 
so that the company could not well see her face and assumed 
a very melancholy expression until the subject of the Imperial 

' Fourquevaux to the Queen, Nov. 3, 1565, Depeches, p. 6. 

^ Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Nov. 5, 1565, ibid., p. 8. Same to same, 
Nov. 21, 1565, ibid., p. 13. 

^Fourquevaux to the Queen, Nov. 5, 1565, ibid,, p. 9. 

''Probably Claude de I'Aubespine, Secretary of State under Francis I., 
Henry II., Francis II., and Charles IX. 

* Jean d'Ebrard de Saint Sulpice, French ambassador to Spain immedi- 
ately preceding Fourquevaux. 



ii6 The Spanish Settlements 

alliances was reached, when she lighted up a little and said 
that it seemed well to her. We then began upon the matter 
of Florida, upon which Saint Sulpice attempted to comment 
before she had answered. I observed that I had come to con- 
verse with them, and hoped they would be contented with 
Saint Sulpice's reading of the paper, and so they dismissed 
him. The Queen would not allow me to say a word on the 
subject, at one moment telling me, ' The subjects of my son 
are going only to a mountainous region called Hercules dis- 
covered by the French crown over two hundred years ago. ' 
I turned to the King and began to enlarge upon the matter 
with the urgency which your Majesty had directed me to use. 
The Queen's eyes kindled and she poised herself like a lioness 
to hear what I was saying to her son. I said in substance that 
it was a business of great consequence and that he should be- 
seech his mother to weigh it well. At this she grew angry 
with me, and to tell Your Majesty the truth, I did the same 
with her, for she would not answer to the point and feigned 
wonder at everything I said. At last, closing her eyes, she 
exclaimed that for the life of her she understood nothing of 
this matter. By this Your Majesty can see with what sin- 
cerity she deals." 

Several days elapsed, during which Charles took the 
advice of his council upon the subject two or three times. 
On the 30th Burdin, the King's secretary, handed Alava 
his master's reply. In substance it set out that it was 
neither his intention nor his will that his subjects should 
occupy lands or provinces discovered by Spain ; but that 
Philip was not "to restrict them so and check them with 
so short a bridle " as to prevent them from going where 
he had neither discovered nor taken possession, as was 
the case with the "country where his subjects were going, 
a country called la Ticrra de los Bretoncs,'' discovered 
many years before by the French Crown. He promised 
to do his best to establish the safety of navigation and 
trade, and that he would chastise his subjects as infractors 



Philip's Notice to France 117 

and perturbers of the public peace if they offended those 
of Philip. 

But Alava was not to be put aside by the royal quibble, 
and answered Burdin, 

" Why do you want us to talk this nonsense? Whether you 
call it the Land of the Bretons or the Mountains of Hercules, 
as the Queen does, the province where the vassals of your 
King are going is the same which we call Florida, and you 
New France, to which it is requested that none of the subjects 
of your master go." 

Burdin could only reply, "The French discovered the 
Land of the Bretons a hundred years ago, as can be seen 
by the maps of the newly discovered provinces." "Now 
we have proved that the land you call Land of the Bre- 
tons and we Florida is one and the same," replied Alava, 
"and you mean to say that you first discovered it, so 
that the issue turns on the right of your King to it, and 
not that it is a different country from Florida, where the 
French are going, as may be gathered from your King's 
answer, and what you yourself are saying." Again 
Burdin could only answer that the King his master had 
sent this reply and would transmit it to his ambassador 
so that he might communicate it to Philip. After a little 
more fencing as to the title to the country Burdin took 
his leave, but not before Alava had told him how super- 
ficial a consideration the French Council had given so 
important a matter. 

"The fact is," writes Alava in the same letter in which 
he relates the audience and the conversation, "that in the 
midst of their ill-luck and misery, and without hope in 
any one except Your Majesty, they are still determined 
to show Your Majesty that they are whole, and have no 
need of Your Majesty and are able to resist you whenever 
they are fretted." ' The upshot of the interview shows 

* Alava to Philip II., Nov. 29, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (80). 



ii8 The Spanish Settlements 

that Catherine had recognised the force of Fourquevaux's 
advice, had followed it to the letter, and in spite of 
Alava's bluntness had again outwitted him by evading 
the real issue and turning the question upon a technical 
matter of geographical boundaries. 

The Terre des Bretons, upon the title to which Cathe- 
rine had succeeded in turning the issue, embraced the 
peninsula which is now called Nova Scotia, with an ill- 
defined region to the west of it occasionally bearing the 
same name, but more frequently called La Notivclle France 
or Nova Gallia, and to which France laid claim in virtue 
of Verrazano's discovery. Its southern boundary was as 
vague as was the northern boundary of Philip's Florida, 
and in a certain sense the Portuguese map-makers ad- 
mitted her claim as early as the first quarter of the cent- 
ury by designating Nova Scotia on their maps as the land 
discovered by the Bretons.' But Catherine had now 
given Philip a Roland for an Oliver, and if he, in virtue 
of his discoveries to the south, was disposed to lay his 
clutch upon the entire continent to the north, she had 
capped his pretensions with a counter-claim to the south 
founded upon French discoveries to the north, saving 
always the title conveyed by the papal bull, to which 
neither party had made any reference, although Philip 
still held it in reserve. 

And yet so great was the ignorance of the immensity 
of the territory for which both sovereigns were contend- 
ing, so little did the French really know of the relative 
positions of the Terre des Bretons, of the Florida penin- 
sula, and of the countless leagues which separated them, 
that Catherine herself may have been labouring under a 
genuine misapprehension as to the real conditions. Not- 
withstanding all her duplicity and wile, the reading of 
the prejudiced correspondence of the Spanish ambassador 
with his King frequently raises the doubt as to whether 

' See Appendix K, La Terre des Bretons. 



Philip's Notice to France 119 

she may not, after all, have been sincere in her belief that 
her French subjects were going to colonise the Terre des 
Bretons. The doubt is accentuated by her adherence to 
this position in the course of subsequent events, her very 
genuine bitterness at the punishment inflicted upon the 
Florida colony, and the attitude subsequently taken by 
herself and her son toward the French avenger. If such 
indeed be the case, she had been misled by those around 
her who were more directly interested in the enterprise 
than herself, and was for once filled with a righteous in- 
dignation at the arrogance of Philip's demands. For 
though the opinion of the Council of the Indies as to the 
scope of his title had not been shown her, its purport was 
unquestionably known to her. It is only the dim shadow 
of a doubt, the vague semblance of a suspicion which the 
correspondence awakens, one that lurks rather in the at- 
mosphere than in any concrete fact upon which the his- 
torian can put his finger; and as such it must pass. 

And so Philip had quieted his conscience in view of 
"the brotherly relations between himself and the Most 
Christian King, and the frankness and sincerity that 
should be observed between them" by giving him due 
notice of his intention to oust the French from his 
possessions, but he had done so only after the blow had 
been struck and the footprints of France in the white 
sands of Florida had been washed out in a sea of blood. 



CHAPTER VII 

PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES 

THE man to whom Philip had entrusted the task of 
driving the French out of Florida was no mere ad- 
venturer of the common sort, but a nobleman of unusual 
ability, who had held high and distinguished positions in 
the service of his country. His name was Don Pedro 
Men^ndez de Avil^s,' a descendant of Dofla Paya, an 
ancient family of the Asturias, where the "earth and 
sky," according to his biographer, "bear men who are 
honest, not tricksters, truthful, not babblers, most faith- 
ful to their King, generous, friendly, light-hearted, and 
merry, daring, and warlike." ^ He was born on the 15th 
of February, 15 19, in the sea-port of Aviles, which had 
been granted to the founder of the house by King Dom 
Pelayo, and from which he derived his surname. 

His active and adventurous disposition showed itself at 
a very early age ; and on the death of his father, who had 

' His full name as given in Vignau y Uhagon's Index of the members of 
the Order of Santiago is : Pedro Menendez de Aviles y Alonso de la Campa 
{Indice de pruebas de los caballeros que han vestido el hdbito de Santiago desde 
el ano'ijoi, hasta la fee ha, formado por D. Vicente Vignau . . . y D. 
Francisco R. de Uhagon . . . Madrid, 1901, p, 222). 

* " Vida y hechos de Pero Menendez de Auiles, cauallero de la hordem de 
Santiago, adelantado de la florida : do largamente se tratan las conquistas y 
poblaciones de la prouincia de la florida, y como fueron libradas de los 
luteranos que dellas se auian apoderado. Compuesta por el maestro bar- 
rientos, Catredatico de salamanca." In Dos Antignas Relaciottes de la 
Florida . . . por . , . Genaro Garcia, Mexico, 1902, p. i. 

120 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 121 

served in the conquest of Granada,' and the second mar- 
riage of his mother, he was afifianced when only eight 
years of age to Dofta Marfa de Solis, herself but two years 
his senior, in the hope of keeping him at home. But the 
lad would not submit to restraint, for the rugged mount- 
ains in which he was cradled were the home of a restless 
generation, rovers of the ocean and intrepid crusaders, 
and Aviles, after marshalling the mimic combats of his 
playfellows, soon felt the spell of the fierce sea which 
breaks on the Asturian coast. When barely fourteen 
years of age he ran away one day, and embarking in a 
tender with a crew of eighteen or twenty men, fell in 
with a Frenchman in command of a well-armed vessel, 
who attempted to capture him. In the encounter the 
boat of Menendez was so greatly damaged by the guns 
of the corsair that his crew at first wished to surrender, 
but the boy urged them on with such valour that he 
infused them with his own confidence, and the French- 
man, not daring to board it, let them escape in safety to 
Galicia.' 

As his father's property had to be divided between 
him and his nineteen brothers and sisters, it will readily 
be understood that the share which fell to him was not 
large, and for two years he followed the profession of 
a seaman, fighting the French on the water for most 
of the time, during the war which was then being waged 
between France and Spain. His sea service ended, he 
returned home possessed with a love of the rough and 
adventurous career of a sailor, for which he seems to have 
been especially endowed by nature. Selling part of his 

. ' Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, Aiio MDLXIV., p. 57. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Relaciones de la Florida, p. g. 
"Memorial que hizoel Doctor Gonzalo Solis de Merasde todas las jornadas 
y sucesos del Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles, su cunado, y de la 
Conquista de la Florida y Justicia que hizo en Juan Ribao y otros fran- 
ceses." In E. Ruidiaz y Caravia, La Florida su conquista y colonizacidn par 
Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Madrid, 1893, tomo i., p. 2. 



122 The Spanish Settlements 

patrimony he purchased a vessel of his own and success- 
fully directed his attention to the corsairs which infested 
the coast and the neighbouring seas.' 

In 1549, during the interval of peace with France, the 
corsair Jean Alfonse, the pilot of Roberval,^ made a rich 
haul of some ten or a dozen Biscay vessels off Cape 
Finisterre, and Aviles was ordered by Maximilian, Re- 
gent of Spain during the absence of Charles V. in Flan- 
ders, to go against him and capture him. Although the 
Regent gave him neither money nor men for the enter- 
prise, Menendez boldly undertook the commission, and 
in an encounter with Alfonse off La Rochelle so punished 
him that he died of a wound which he there received ; 
and Aviles rescued five of the vessels which the corsair 
had seized. Off Teneriffe he also defeated Alfonse's son, 
who had vowed vengeance against his father's slayer, sent 
Aviles a challenge, and had gone to the Canaries to en- 
counter him on his way to the Indies. 

His energy and success did not escape the attention of 
Charles V., who, recognising the ability shown by the 
young seaman, commissioned him to fight the corsairs 
€ven in time of peace, and granted him and his descend- 
ants all that he succeeded in capturing.^ Shortly upon 
this followed his appointment to one of the most re- 
sponsible offices that could be held by a Spanish seaman 
of that day. 

The sailing of the India fleets, both on their outward- 

' Both Barrientos in Garcia {Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 9) 
and Meras in Ruidiaz {La Florida^ tomo i., p. 2), relate a romantic story 
of his attempted rescue of a bridal party which had been captured by a 
French corsair. 

* Called Juan Alonso the Frenchman by the Spaniards. He was from 
Saintonge, near Cognac, and had been the pilot of Roberval when in Can- 
ada in 1542-1543. J. C. Brevoort in his " Notes on the Verrazano Map" 
{Journal of the Am. Geographical Soc. of New York, 1873, vol. iv., p. 292). 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 10, 11; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 4-7. 



Pedro Menendes de Aviles 123 

bound and return passage, had come to be attended with 
frequent delays through the carelessness or ignorance of 
the commanders, and the navigation of the ocean had 
become so perilous that not only many ships, but even 
entire fleets had been lost. Discipline had grown lax; 
the masters and captains of the ships were insubordinate 
and disobedient, and sometimes, deserting the fleet in the 
attempt to arrive ahead of it, their vessels fell a frequent 
prey to the French corsairs and the pirates. These inci- 
dents had come to assume such proportions as to arouse the 
concern of the King, who ascribed them to the incapaci- 
ties of the Captains-General in charge of the fleets, whose 
appointment was made by the Judges, Prior, and Consuls 
of the Casa de Contratacion at Seville. The King de- 
termined to make a radical change in these methods, by 
depriving the officers of the Casa of this power of ap- 
pointment which they had exercised for many years and 
considered among the most important of their privileges, 
and in 1554 he named Aviles Captain-General of the fleet 
for that year, as against Don Juan Tello de Guzman, the 
nominee of the Casa.' 

It was a very important and responsible position, and 
as it was a command which Aviles filled with distinction 
on many occasions, we will consider some of its varied 
duties. The Captain-General had the care of the fleet 
throughout its entire voyage. His charge began on the 
day of sailing, and continued until he again cast anchor 
on his return to Cadiz or San Lucar.'' It was his duty to 
see that the crews and passengers were duly authorised 
to sail,' for impostors, bankrupts, unlicensed monks, and 

' Aviles to Philip II., July 27, 1555 ; Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. i. Jan. 
8, 1564 ; ibid., tomo ii., pp. 51, 52 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 7. 

* Memorias Histdricas sobre la Legislacidn y Gobierno de los Espaiioles con 
JUS Colonias en las Indias Occidentales , recopiladas por el Sr. D. Rafael 
Antunez y Acevedo, Madrid, 1797, p. 86. 

^ Recopilacidti de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias, Madrid, 1841, lib. ix., 
tit. XV., leyes 21, 23, 29, 



124 The Spanish Settlements 

other prohibited persons took advantage of the fleets to 
escape to the Indies in the disguise of sailors, and bribed 
the masters of the vessels to transport them.' He saw to 
it that the necessary licences for merchandise and slaves 
had been procured, that the passengers went properly 
armed, that there was sufficient powder, that the weapons 
were kept in readiness for an attack, that the ships were 
not overcrowded and were properly ballasted, that the 
fleet was furnished with priests to perform the necessary 
offices for the sick and the dying, with physicians, and 
with notaries for the making of wills'*; in a word, he 
attended to an infinite number of details relating to the 
proper equipment of his fleet. 

To this end he was required to inspect his vessels, 
either in person or through his admiral, at least twice 
during the outward-bound passage, to call the roll every 
fifteen days, to punish all infractions of the laws, and to 
ward off all strange vessels and pirates, compelling the 
latter to surrender.' In the earliest instructions of which 
we have any notice, those of Jan. 21, 1572, he was or- 
dered to proceed against pirates in the open sea, at once 
and with the greatest rigour, hanging them as soon as 
their guilt was established." On the arrival of the fleet at 
its destination it was his office to notify the proper officials 
and to see that the soldiers and sailors committed no ex- 
cesses while in port, to prevent and punish desertions, and 
to see to the loading and unloading of the cargoes. He 
was also required to make reports of the condition of 

' Aviles to Philip II., July 27, 1555 ; Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 6; 
Recopil., lib. ix. , tit, xv., ley 29. 

^ Recopil., lib. ix., tit. xv., leyes 26, 30, 32, 37, 40, 51. 

^ Recopil., lib. ix., tit. xv., leyes 13, 49, 50, 53, 66. 

* Antunez, pp. 88, 89. These instructions contain some curious pro- 
visions to prevent the smuggling of gold or silver from out of the ships, and 
forbid the presence aboard ship of any woman with her lover, and if any 
woman be allowed she can only go in the capacity of " washerwoman for 
the general service of the armada." 



Pedro Menendes de Aviles 125 

the countries which he visited.* In addition to all of 
these requirements relating to the equipment of his fleet, 
the ordering of its departure and return, and the interior 
policing of the vessels, he was required to advise the 
home Government of his arrival and of the date of his in- 
tended return, on reaching the port of San Juan de Ulua. 
The position offered many and great opportunities for 
gain by irregular methods, of which some were not slow 
to avail themselves. Where, for instance, owing to any 
particular reason, the return fleet sailed in two sections 
it lay in the option of the General to indicate which ves- 
sels should go in the first division. The advantage 
accruing to those first to sail was so great that influence 
was frequently brought to bear, and high bribes were 
paid for the privilege.^ On the other hand, it was some- 
times to the interest of the merchants to delay the sailing 
of the fleet, and high bribes were offered to bring it about. 
In a case of this description we have an interesting anec- 
dote of the integrity of Aviles. Being in the port of San 
Juan de Luz, about to set sail for Castile, certain mer- 
chants offered him a thousand ducats a day to postpone 
the departure for three days, and double that amount for 
every additional day of delay. Aviles observed that it 
was "good money," ordered the chaplain of his fleet to 
say mass, boarded his flag-ship, and having discharged a 
cannon as a signal to his vessels, immediately set sail, 
with the outspoken remark that no one knew what the 
loss of an hour could bring in the service of God and the 
King.^ 

' Recopil., lib. ix., tit. xv., leyes 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 60, 69, 71, 72, 83, 84. 

* See " Relacion de los trabajos que la gente de una nao llamada Nra 
Senora de la Merced padecio" . . . por fray Andres de San Miguel, in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Kelaciones de la Florida, p. 160, where a vessel is said 
to have paid 1500 ducats for such a licence in addition to transporting two 
of the General's horses free of cost. 

^ " Informacion de algunos servicios prestados por el Adelantado Pedro 
Menendez de Aviles," Mexico, 3 de Abril de 1595, Ruidiaz, La Florida, 



126 The Spanish Settlements 

By far the greatest opportunity lay in conniving at the 
smuggling of gold and silver and of prohibited merchan- 
dise, which was so general a practice in those days. Here, 
again, Avil^s appears in the character of a man of honour. 
In 1563, after his return from his third voyage, the Casa 
de Contrataci6n, with all its powerful machinery and 
its violent animus, could find no charge against him except 
one relating to smuggling alleged to have been committed 
nine years before, during his first voyage,' for which, after 
a prolonged suit, it succeeded only in condemning him 
to a fine of two thousand ducats, half of which was re- 
mitted by the King, whose confidence he had. The 
office also offered opportunities of legitimate profit. One 
of these was the custom of the merchants, whose ships 
were in convoy, to make gifts to the highest officers, con- 
cerning which Menendez naively complained to Philip 
that although the fleets of the Carrera de las Indias were 
far more valuable than those of the Levant, the mer- 
chants were less liberal in giving." And yet Menendez 
died poor.^ 

During the interval which elapsed between his appoint- 
ment and the date fixed for the sailing of the India fleet 
Avil6s accompanied Philip on the latter's visit to Eng- 
land to be married to Queen Mary, sailing from Corunna 
in July,* and from there he returned to Seville, still in 

tomo ii., p. 621 ; and see the charges against his brother, Bartolome Menen- 
dez, in Aviles's letter to Philip II. of July 27, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 35. 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relacioties de la Florida, p. 21. 

'^ Aviles to Philip II., July 27, 1563, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 

35,36- 

^ One of the seven interrogations put to the witnesses in the " Informacion 
de algunos servicios prestados por el Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles," 
Mexico, 3 de Abril de 1595 (in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 5901?/ seq^ 
was : If they know that the said Adelantado, being in his Majesty's service, 
died and passed away from this present life, and that his children were left 
very poor and in much need? (p. 592). To this all of the witnesses testi- 
fied in the affirmative (see pp. 591, 598, 605, 609, 612, 619, 623). 

■* Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 8, 1564, Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 51, 53; 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 127 

Philip's service, being attacked on his sea journey by 
pirates, whom he successfully routed.' In September, 

1555, Charles V., being in need of money to conduct his 
war with France, dispatched him to the Indies with a 
fleet of six men-of-war and seventy merchantmen and 
orders to winter in Havana, should he be unable to sail 
by the 7th of September of the following year. Menen- 
dez *"ully realised the pressing necessities of the Emperor, 
and, with the devotion of a faithful servant and the self- 
reliance of a brave man, determined to exceed his in- 
structions. Although aware, as he himself wrote, that 
"in the event of failure Your Majesty will have my head 
off," he was back in Spain by the 12th of September of 

1556, nine months before he was due, having made the 
entire trip and collected the huge sum of seven millions 
of ducats in the unusually short space of one year.'^ 

The Casa de Contratacion was awaiting its opportunity 
to be avenged of the man who had been instrumental in 
depriving it of one of its most important prerogatives; 
and when Menendez reached Seville on his return, he and 
a brother of his, who had been Admiral of the Fleet, were 
seized, sentenced, and put to great expense on accusa- 
tions probably relating to the conduct of the fleet; but 
they were finally freed by the Council of the Indies and 
their innocence established.^ 

In February, 1557,^ Aviles was again appointed in com- 
mand of another fleet for the Indies, but his experience 
with the Casa de Contratacion had taught him that in such 

Noticias biogrdfico-genealdgicas de Pedro Menendez de AviUs . . . por 
D. Ciriaco Miguel Vigil, . . . Aviles, 1892, p. 23 ; Froude, Hist, of 
England^ New York, 1870, vol. vi., p. 223. 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 7 ; Vigil, Noticias, p. 23. 

** "Memorial de Pero Menendez de Aviles," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
ii., p. 32S : Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 9, 10; Barrientos in Garcia, Do^ 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 12 ; Vigil, Noticias, p. 23. 

2 Aviles to Pliilip II., Jan. 8, 1564, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 53. 

* February 26, 1557, "Memorial," ibid., tomo ii., p. 329. 



128 The Spanish Settlements 

service the pirates and corsairs were not the only enemies 
with whom he would have to contend, so he requested 
Philip for another command. The King acceded to his 
petition and by royal patent of March 22, 1557, named 
him Captain-General of a powerful armada to pursue the 
pirates and protect the fleets and the coasts of Spain and 
Flanders/ This duty, too, he executed with promptness 
and energy, and in June of the same year, while he 
was shipping some artillery at Laredo, he was appointed 
to the command of twenty-four vessels to carry twelve 
hundred thousand ducats and fifteen hundred men to the 
relief of the army in Flanders, where Philip was already 
at war with France, which had finally been induced to 
break the truce of Vaucelles through the artful machina- 
tions of Cardinal Caraffa.' On his arrival at Laredo, 
from which he was to sail, he found that half of his 
fleet was in Galicia and that he would be compelled to 
await its return. Impatient at the delay, and knowing 
Philip's urgent need of money, he again exceeded his in- 
structions, boldly set out with the four ships at his com- 
mand, and successfully accomplished the undertaking, 
reaching Dover in fifteen days, landing his troops and 
money in Calais, and allowing the wool merchantmen 
whom he had escorted to proceed in safety to Holland. 
He captured on the way two corsairs, and beat off Pie de 
Palo, who had attacked him with a fleet of eight ships, 
and sunk one of his galleons. The timely arrival of the 
money and men due to the prompt action of Aviles 

' " Titulo otorgado a Pero Menendez de Aviles de Capitan General de 
la Armada dispuesta para proteger las flotas de la carrera de Indias y 
perseguir a los corsarios," Valladolid, 22 de Marzo de 1557, ibid., tomo ii., 
p. 379. Barcia, Ensayo, p. 59, gives the same date. Barrientos in Dos 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 12, says May 12, 1557 ; Aviles to 
Philip II., Jan. 8, 1564, Ruidi'az, ibid., tomo ii., p. 53. 

* " Memorial," ibid., tomo ii., p. 329 ; Aviles to the Princess of Portugal, 
June 2, 1567, ibid., tomo ii., p. 25 ; Rise of the Dutch Republic, vol. i., p. 
157 et scq. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 129 

largely contributed to the victory of St. Quentin, says 
his biographer, for not until two months after his de- 
parture did the balance of his fleet return from Galicia, 
and in the interval the battle had been fought and won.* 
He did good service in warding off the attacks of cor- 
sairs from the auxiliaries sent by Queen Mary to the 
assistance of her husband in Flanders. On one particu- 
lar occasion he showed signal personal bravery in rescu- 
ing the fleet in command of Diego de Mendoza, and of 
which his brother, D. Alvar Sanchez de Aviles, was Ad- 
miral. Mendoza was conducting the Prince of Eboli 
with reinforcements to Philip in Flanders, and lay to 
outside of a port on the English coast* to enable the 
Prince to disembark and proceed by land to Philip with 
the news of his arrival. Don Diego's fleet having set 
sail the following day in company with that of Menendez, 
which had joined it shortly before, there arose a fierce 
storm which compelled them to return to the harbour. 
This was found to be barricaded with an iron chain which 
the Mayor had caused to be stretched across the entrance, 
and refused to remove. Aviles, seeing the peril to which 
the fleet was exposed, took with him fifty soldiers, and, 
converting a heavy beam into a battering-ram, he beat 
down the gate of the tower to which the chain was 
attached, allowing the ships to enter the harbour. So 
violent was the storm that six English and two Spanish 
vessels went down in it and over four hundred persons 
were drowned. Aviles worked all night long, tying up 
some of the ships, extricating others, animating the pilots 

' " Memorial," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 329-330 ; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 12, 13 ; Barcia, Ensayo, 

P- 59- 

' Possibly the haven of Dartmouth in Devonshire. The name of " Ar- 
tamu" occurs on the map of Domingo Olives of 1568 in Nordenskiold's 
Periplus, Plate XXIX., in a location corresponding to that of Dartmouth 
on other contemporary maps. The Spanish name appears both as Artamua 
and Hartamua. 
**. — g. 



130 The Spanish Settlements 

and sailors with directions and advice, and rescuing the 
drowning, of whom he succeeded in saving over three 
hundred with his boats.' 

Ordered by Philip to return to Laredo, he was in that 
port, when, on the 17th of January, 1558, Calais was 
finally lost to the English. Philip, who was still in Flan- 
ders fighting the French, was again in straits for money, 
and as a large French armada was arming at San Juan 
de Luz, he ordered Aviles to add four great galleons to 
his fleet and to bring a thousand soldiers by way of the 
sea. Aviles, aware of the necessity of prompt action, 
went himself to Valladolid, where the Council of War 
was sitting, and after showing the delay and great ex- 
pense to which the Government would be put in collect- 
ing the ships and men, and by following the course which 
had been determined upon, suggested an expedient, which 
he was authorised to try. Hastening to Castro, he 
secured four small fishing-smacks and daringly made a 
winter passage to Antwerp, which he reached in fifteen 
days from the date of his leaving Valladolid. So unpre- 
cedented was a voyage in these small vessels at that tem- 
pestuous season of the year that he could find none bold 
enough to sail them except the few men he took with 
him.^ Either on this occasion or on a succeeding expe- 
dition of the same nature he is said to have carried not 
only a large sum of money, but also a force of soldiers 
concealed in what appeared to be cargoes of apples, with 
which he passed through the midst of the French corsairs 
without being discovered.* 

' Barrientos in Dos Antiguas Relaciones de !a Florida, pp. 13, 14 ; Meras 
in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. liet seq.; "Informacion de algunos ser- 
vicios," ibid., tomo ii., p. 595. Menendez merely touches upon the incident 
in his letter of Oct. 6, 1557, to the Princess of Portugal, ibid., tomo ii., p, 

27- 

''Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 14, 15. 

^ Deposition of Grauiel de Rivera in "Informacion de algunos servicios." 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 601. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 131 

On his returning to Laredo for money and men he was 
ordered to add two other smacks to his fleet. These two 
boats were at the time in San Sebastian, where they had 
gone to escort four vessels in search of suppHes. Aviles, 
hearing that he was watched by the French corsairs in 
San Juan de Luz, who had learned that he would not sail 
without these two boats, again showed his remarkable 
energy and decision of character, and setting out in his 
four fishing smacks eluded the Frenchmen, and reached 
Antwerp in nine days.' On his return voyage with his 
fishing-smacks, he escorted two vessels having aboard of 
them the Archbishop of Toledo, the Regent Figueroa, 
and other gentlemen, besides a large fleet of merchant 
vessels, which for fear of the corsairs had not dared to 
leave the port. While on his way he came across a 
French armada of twelve galleons, in command of the 
Admiral of Normandy, and conducted himself with so 
much skill and daring, that the Frenchmen fled, and 
he eventually convoyed his charge in safety to Laredo.* 
On his arrival in Spain, he was charged by the Regent, 
the Princess of Portugal, to escort the Queen to Flanders; 
but her death put an end to the proposed voyage,' and 
on the conclusion of the peace with France he conducted 
Doctor B. Velasco, a member of the King's Council, and 
Camara to Flanders.* 

The close of the war with France at last afforded Philip 
the opportunity he desired of returning to Spain, and 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 15 ; 
" Memorial," Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 330-333. 

^ " Memorial," ibid., tomo ii., pp. 332-334. 

^ " Real Cedula de la Princesa de Portugal disponiendo que nose proceda 
contra Pero Menendez per las reclamaciones de los duenos y maestres de 
varies naos, y ordenando se remitan al Consejo de Guerra." Valladolid, 30 
de Noviembre de 1558, Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 348 ; Meras in ibid., 
tomo i., p. 27. 

^ " Real Carta referente a un viaje de Pero Menendez de Aviles a 
Flandres." Valladolid, 25 de Enero de 1559, ibid., tomo ii., p. 350; 
Meras, in ibid., tomo i., p. 27, 



132 The Spanish Settlements 

having organised the government of the Netherlands to 
his satisfaction, and appointed Margaret of Parma as his 
regent, preparations were begun for his departure. At 
the end of April Avil6s, accompanied by his only son, 
Juan Menendez, and Sebastian de Estrada, started on 
another of his expeditious trips to Spain, in order to 
make ready for the King's departure, travelling by post 
through France in disguise, and was back again in Flan- 
ders by the loth of July with fifty vessels/ 

On the 27th of August the fleet of eighty sail set out 
from Flanders to escort the King to Laredo, with Avil^s 
in command as Captain-General. On the tenth day Avi- 
l^s perceived the indications of an approaching storm, 
and, the fleet being free of the English and French coasts, 
a council was held as to where the King should disem- 
bark. The advice of Avil^s prevailed, and the fleet made 
for the coast of the Asturias, where he had selected a 
landing on the shore of a point of land near Gijon. 
Three leagues off Laredo Avil^s realised that the storm 
was about to break over them. At his request the King 
entered a boat, and under shelter of Mount San Tona 
landed on Lady's Day, September 8th. Dreading the 
consequences of the storm to the large vessels off the 
point of Laredo, Avilds worked all through that night 
and succeeded in landing one hundred and fifty coffers of 
the King and all of the furniture,'' and then the storm 
broke. The fleet was richly ladened, for Philip had de- 
termined to fix his future capital in Spain. Some of the 
ships foundered, and to save others the cargoes had to be 
lightened, and much of the rich tapestries and treasures 
accumulated by Charles and Philip was lost. 

Shortly afterwards Avil^s went to pay his respects to 
Philip, who asked him to what cause he attributed the 

' Meras, in ibid., tomo i., p. 28. 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 17, 
18 ; Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 30, 37. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 133 

storm. "For many months all Spain has prayed for 
Your Majesty, beseeching our Lord to conduct you in 
safety to your realm," replied Menendez, "and during 
that season the devils could do you no harm ; but when 
Your Majesty landed the prayers ceased, and thereupon 
they found the opportunity to work what evil they 
could."' From Laredo the King proceeded to Valla- 
dolid, where a month later he was enabled to enjoy the 
auto-da-fe in which thirteen heretics were burned before 
his eyes, and where he made the memorable reply to the 
appeal of one of them, the young Carlos de Sessa: "I 
would carry the wood to burn my own son, were he as 
wicked as you." ^ 

The hardships and anxieties of his frequent journeying 
between Spain and Flanders had brought on a quartan 
fever, of which Aviles was hardly recovered when he was 
summoned to Toledo, and in January, 1560,^ was put in 
command of an armada destined for New Spain and 
Tierra Firme, in which went the Count of Niebla, Viceroy 
of New Spain. Aviles sought to excuse himself on the 
grounds of his ill-health and his prolonged separation 
from his wife; but Philip, who had as small regard for 
the domestic ties of others as he had for his own when 
they stood in the path of his sense of duty, merely ob- 
served that a quartan fever was not a dangerous malady.* 
Further objections raised by Aviles on account of the ill- 
will of the Casa de Contrataci6n were also overridden and 
he was compelled to sail, but the King considerately in- 
creased his salary beyond what it was customary to pay 
the generals of the armada.^ 

His instructions were to remain only fifty days in New 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 37. 

"^ The Rise of the Dutch Republic, vol. i., pp. 220, 222. 

3 " Memorial," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 335. 

* Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 38. 

' Avile's to Philip II., Jan. 8, 1564, ibid., tomo ii., p. 54. 



134 The Spanish Settlements 

Spain, and then, without another day's delay, to return 
with what money he could collect. But subordination 
played no part in the General's plans, when he thought 
that his King and country could profit by his disobedi- 
ence, and again he deliberately set the instructions at 
naught. He found, on his arrival in Mexico, that the 
money he had been sent to fetch was already a month on 
its way to Spain, and in order to avoid the great expense 
to the Crown of returning with empty holds he remained 
there ten months, during which he succeeded in securing 
a large treasure, and was back safely in Seville by the 6th 
of July of 1561.' 

Following shortly upon his return, Menendez was 
named Captain-General of the Carrera de las Indias by a 
royal provision of October 18, 1561,* and his brother, 
Bartolom^, Admiral. The departure of Menendez on 
this his third voyage to the West Indies was delayed 
until late in the spring of 1562 by various causes, among 
which was a renewed contest with the Casa de Contrata- 
ci6n, which refused to pay him his increase of salary, and 

* Menendez in his " Memorial" (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 335, 
336), says he was ordered to the Indies in January, 1560. The Admiral of 
his fleet was ordered back by letter of Feb. 21, 1560, and reached Spain in 
"Noviembre pasado" (p, 334), i. e., 1560. This is in agreement with the 
apparent date of the " Memorial," which from internal evidence (see pp. 334- 
338) was written Oct. -Dec, 1561. Aviles returned July 6th, eight months 
later than the Admiral, i. e., July 6, 1561. De Maris in his " Jornadas" 
{ibid., tomo i., p. 39) gives the date of his return as July 11, 1560, in which 
he is followed by Barcia {Ensayo, Ano MDLXIV., p. 64). Barrientos in 
his " Vida y Hechos" (Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 20) 
leaves the year in blank and gives the month only, July 6th. as the date of 
his return. Aviles in his "Memorial" (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
334), and Barrientos as well, relate that he remained ten months in port in 
the Indies. As the passage was usually made in about forty days, and there 
were at least twelve months consumed in the entire expedition, at the 
shortest he could not have been back before September, 1560, which date 
is in conflict with the month of July named by Aviles as that of his return. 
Vigil in his Noticias, p. 24, merely says that he returned in 1560. 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 20. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 135 

accused him of exceeding his instructions in many par- 
ticulars. From this he was relieved only by the direct 
interposition of the King, who ordered that he should 
henceforward serve under the instructions of the Council 
of the Indies, which alone would hold him accountable 
for their performance.' By June of 1563, Menendez was 
back again in Spain with a rich cargo. ^ 

Scarcely had Aviles returned to Seville from his third 
voyage, when he fell again into the clutches of his im- 
placable enemies, the ofificers of the Casa, whose old 
animosity against him as the original cause of their dimin- 
ished privileges and loss of prestige now found vent 
against him and his brother Bartolome.' Nor was 

' Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 8, 1564, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 54, 
55. And see his letter to Philip II., April 5, 1562, ibid., p. 32 ; Barrientos, 
in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 20. 

' Barrientos in his " Viday Hechos" (in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones 
de la Florida, p. 20), says Aviles made the voyage in 1563. Meras in his 
"Jornadas " (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 42) omits the voyage altogether, 
Barcia {Ensayo, Ario MDLXIV., p. 64) says Aviles was ordered to the 
Indies in 1561, in which he is followed by Vigil, in his iVoticias, p. 24. But 
as there is a warrant addressed to Aviles of Feb. 3, 1562 (Brit. Mus. Add. 
MSS. Cotton Vesp. c. vii., fol. 266, and printed in Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., 
p, 401), and a letter of Aviles dated from San Lucar, April 5, 1562 {ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 32), it is highly improbable that he could have made the expedi- 
tion in the interval of six months between the date of his appointment and 
that of the letter, given the time necessary to gather and equip the fleet and 
the minimum of eighty days for the voyage to and fro. There is, however, 
an interval of fifteen months between this letter and the following one of 
July 27, 1563, dated at Seville {ibid., tomo ii., p. 34), which is more than 
sufficient time for the accomplishment of the journey. Subsequent to that 
date he was continually present in Seville, as his successive letters from 
there show. See letters of Aug. 21, Sept. 15 and 24, 1563, and Jan. 8, 
1564, all dated at Seville {ibid., tomo ii., pp. 38, 43, 51, 60). That the 
period consumed by this voyage extended from the spring of 1562 to June 
of 1563, is confirmed by the " Reg. del C. de I." fol. 68 and 68 vto, given by 
Don Cesareo Fernandez Duro in hxs Ai-mada Espatiola (Madrid, 1896, tomo 
ii., pp. 464, 465), showing that Aviles passed the winter of 1562-1563 in 
New Spain, while his brother Bartolome returned without waiting for him. 

^Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Atitiguas Relaciones de La Florida, p. 30; 
Aviles to Philip II., April 5, 1562, Pvuidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 32; 



136 The Spanish Settlements 

this his only offence, for he had also grossly insulted them 
in a public and outrageous manner. One day, when some 
of the officials of the Casa were inspecting the vessels of 
a fleet of which he was Captain-General, Menendez ob- 
served that their boat flew a banner of crimson damask, 
emblazoned with the royal arms, such as the King himself 
displayed when on a campaign, and which the Captain- 
General alone, by special authority was entitled to fly. 
Menendez wasted no words with them, but simply hauled 
it down and kept it. ' ' And such is their anger against me, " 
he writes, "that since they have seized me, they publicly 
proclaim, that forasmuch as I have deprived them of the 
power of appointing the Generals, and have taken their 
royal standard from them, it matters little to them if they 
deprive me of my honour, and even of my life." ' 

Anticipating trouble, Aviles had on his arrival escaped 
post-haste to Madrid, but the officials had gotten the ear 
of Philip and he was compelled to return to Seville to 
answer the charges against him. About the 21st of 
August, 1563, while in an enfeebled condition from hav- 
ing been bled and purged, he was pounced upon by the 
constables of the Casa. At the moment of his arrest he 
was surrounded by a hundred of his soldiers who had 
seen continued service with him, and there were some 
fifteen hundred more of them in Seville at the time, but 
he submitted quietly to the arrest and was imprisoned in 
the Arsenal with two guards. From there he was subse- 
quently transferred to the "Golden Tower," the graceful 
treasure-house of the Almohades, which still guards the 
banks of the Guadalquivir at Seville." It was a very 

July 27, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 34 ; Aug. 21, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 38 
and 39; Sept. 15, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 43, 44; Sept. 24, 1563, ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 49 ; Jan. 8, 1564, ibid,, tomo ii., pp. 51, 52. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 15, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 44. 

2 Aviles to Philip II., July 27, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 40; Aug. 21, 
1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 38; Sept. 15, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 43, 46; 
Sept. 24, 1563, ibid., tomo ii,, p. 48 ; Jan. 8, 1564, ibid., tomo ii., p. 56. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 137 

serious inconvenience to him, for he was under heavy 
bonds to equip three galleons by the 20th of September 
to transport to Peru the Licentiate Castro, who had been 
appointed its President and Governor. He was released 
for eight days on bail, and succeeded in fitting out the 
ships, but his imprisonment prevented their sailing in 
time to join the departing fleet for that year/ 

It is difificult to ascertain what was the precise miscon- 
duct with which he was charged. According to his bio- 
grapher, Barrientos, the Casa de Contratacidn, unable to 
find any cause of complaint against him in relation to the 
voyage just completed, accused him of having greatly 
exceeded his authority in his first voyage to the West 
Indies, of having connived at the smuggling of a large 
quantity of money, and of having in many ways infringed 
upon its regulations. From his own letters we gather 
that its enquiries extended over all the twelve years he 
had passed in the royal service, although during the entire 
term he had acted under the instructions of the Casa, 
which had laid no charge against him until its jealousy 
had been aroused by his removal from under its juris- 
diction." He informs us that he was accused of accepting 
a bribe of five hundred ducats to delay the sailing of the 
fleet during his second voyage of 1 560-1 561, and of giv- 
ing insufificient rations to the soldiers ; both of which 
accusations, together with others made against him, he 
sums up as old charges, the most of them of four and five 
years' standing.^ 

In successive letters Aviles besought the King, saying: 

" If I deserve punishment, let it be justly done, not a single 
one of my acts being forgiven; and if the judges deserve it for 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 15, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 45. Same to 
same, Jan. 8, 1564, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 56, 58. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 15, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 43, 44. 

^ Aviles to Philip II., July 27, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 36 ; same to same, 
Aug. 21, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 38. 



138 The Spanish Settlements 

doing what they have no right to do, let not their punishment 
be a secret reprimand, but in accordance with what they de- 
serve; for I do not care to retain my honour, unless it follows 
a just discharge of their accusations, and clears me, so that 
Your Majesty and the Council may understand the passion 
and daring of these men." ' 

The judges, finding nothing against him, protracted the 
suit and delayed sentence, until compelled to pass judg- 
ment by the receipt of two successive cedulas from the 
King himself. After spending twenty months in prison, 
the suit was ended by condemning Men^ndez to pay a 
thousand ducats, of which sum the King remitted one- 
half, and took him again into his favour, "for," says 
Barrientos, "it was well understood throughout the 
Kingdom that he had been falsely accused." '^ 

Nearly eighteen years had now elapsed, during which 
his constant occupation in the King's service had allowed 
him but few opportunities to visit his home, which stood 
within two leagues of the town of Aviles. It was one of 
the most ancient dwellings in that country, and its name 
of Monte de Rey arose from its former occupation as a 
royal habitation,^ He longed to see his wife again, and 
his three little girls, who had grown to womanhood since 
his last visit." But before so doing he had a painful and 
urgent duty to perform. While at Havana in 1563, and 
about to return to Spain, Menendez had sent his only 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 15, 1563, i^id., tomo ii., p. 47, and see also 
same letter, p. 45 ; same to same, Jan. 8, 1564, I'di'd., tomo ii., p. 58. 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigiias Relaciones de la Florida, p. 21 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, tomo i., p. 43. His brother Bartolome was involved in 
the same trouble with him and was imprisoned for twenty-five months 
{ibid.). A question of jurisdiction appears also to have arisen and possibly 
some jealousy between the Casa de Contratacion and the Council of the 
Indies. At any rate Aviles tried to raise such an issue in his letters. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p, 8 ; Meras 
in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. i. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 8, 1564, ibid., tomo ii., 59. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 139 

son, Don Juan Menendez, a gentleman of the Royal 
Household, to Mexico to command the fleet from New- 
Spain. Don Juan had been wrecked on his way home 
•off the Bermudas and nothing more had been heard of 
him. A number of Men^ndez's relatives, as well as some 
of his old friends and soldiers who had served under him 
for many years, had been lost at the same time. It was 
a severe trial to his affections, and before taking the re- 
pose to which he was so justly entitled, he asked permis- 
sion of the King to seek for his son and his companions 
at the Bermudas and along the neighbouring coast.' 
Philip himself was anxious to carry out the suggestion of 
the Council of New Spain, and explore farther up the 
Florida coast in search of suitable harbours, and Aviles 
readily consented to lend himself to this enterprise, while 
he at the same time prosecuted the search for his lost 
son.* It was under these circumstances that the quarrel 
with France reached its crisis and Philip selected him to 
command the fleet which was to sweep aside the tergiver- 
sations of the French Court. 

Aviles was now in his forty-seventh year, a trained 
soldier, a skilful seaman, and with perhaps a larger ex- 
perience in the special requirements of the undertaking 
than any other man in Spain, perhaps in Europe. He 
was decisive and prompt in an emergency, yet cool and 
resourceful. He was of indomitable energy, with a 
courage beyond reproach. In one of his memorials to 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 46, says he was his only son. Extract from 
" Reg. C. de I.," fol. 68 vto, printed in Duro's Arfnada Espaiiola, tomo ii., 
p. 465. " Informacion de algunos servicios prestados por el Adelantado Pero 
Menendez de Aviles," Mexico, 3 de Abril de 1595, Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomo ii., pp. 598, 608. There is a note appended to Rojomonte's deposi- 
tion in Noticias de la Foblacidn, etc., 1564, pp. 3 and 4, which refers to the 
loss of three ships of Don Juan Menendez on the Florida coast. Fontanedo 
in his " Memoria," XIII., Doc. Inedit. Indias, p. 541, appears to say that 
Juan Menendez was wrecked upon the coast of Ays, Indian River, Florida. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 22, 



I40 The Spanish Settlements 

Philip he writes that "there were neither French nor 
English nor any other nation on the Florida coast that 
could terrify him." ' His loyalty was above suspicion. 
In a letter written from his prison in Seville, he exclaims 
with all of the pride of a faithful subject and of a brave 
soldier, "I possess but my sword, and my cloak, and my 
honour, which are great riches to me, because I have 
been fortunate in my service to Your Majesty." ^ 

His prolonged service in countless naval engagements 
with the French had given him a thorough knowledge 
of their ways and methods, and had infused him with 
a deep hatred of these relentless enemies of his country, 
while it had also bred in him a due respect for their cour- 
age and ability, of which his tribute to Jean Ribaut is a 
remarkable testimony. On occasion he knew how to 
exercise that courtesy which befitted his rank, and Meras 
tells us that he was much liked by Queen Mary, Philip's 
English wife, on account of his liberality and hospitable 
treatment of the Englishmen in her service.' He was no 
theologian. His parallel of the religions of the Protest- 
ants and the Indians shows us that. His faith was that of 
a soldier, imbued with all that hatred of heresy peculiar to 
his age and race; and he showed as little compunction in 
executing upon heretics what was taught to be the will 
of the Church as he was relentless in performing the 
commands of his sovereign. And yet his letters show 
that in carrying through the appalling massacre of the 
French Huguenots in Florida, he was neither impelled 
by rage, nor violence, nor acting under the impulse of a 
blind fanaticism, but was deliberately and conscientiously 
performing what he believed to be his duty towards his 
King and his faith. And in this light we cannot with- 

' " Memorial," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p, 324. 
'^ Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 24, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 50. 
' " Jornadas," in ibid., tomo i., pp. 15, 16. See also his treatment of the 
French prisoners at Ays, p. 215, in this volume and of Osorio, p. 221, ibid. 



Pedro Menendez de Aviles 141 

hold from him the respect due a courageous and faithful 
soldier, while we shudder at the distorted logic which 
could calmly justify his crime. 

We have a portrait of him, at about the age of fifty, 
subsequent to his return from the conquest of Florida. 
In it he bears a curious resemblance in the contour of 
the face to the monarch whom he served, but there the 
resemblance ceases. In place of the bulging eyes and 
sensuous lips which we see in Titian's famous portrait of 
his master, painted at Philip's command for a gift for his 
English bride, we have shrewd, sharp eyes, under the 
heavy brows of a seaman, and lips pressed firmly to- 
gether with a determination that bodes ill for those who 
run counter to it; he is "bearded like the pard," and 
bears on his left breast the cross of Santiago.' 

' See Appendix L, Portraits of Aviles. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE DEPARTURE OF AVILES FOR FLORIDA 

THE asiento under which Avil^s was to undertake the 
conquest of Florida was executed March 20, 1565. 
It first disposed of the rights of prior adventurers, and 
especially of those in the last asiento made with Ayllon, 
because of their failure to settle the country. It then 
directed Aviles to equip six sloops of fifty tons each, and 
four smaller vessels, taking with him the San Pelayo, a 
large ship of six hundred tons, in which to transport the 
colonists across the ocean, because the sloops, being 
small and uncovered, were not fitted for that purpose, 
but were apparently intended for the shallow Florida 
waters. 

The colonists were to number five hundred, of which 
one hundred should be soldiers, one hundred sailors, and 
the balance ofificials, and artisans, such as stone-cutters, 
carpenters, locksmiths, sawyers, smiths, and barbers, all 
fully armed. Two hundred of the settlers were to be 
married, and at least one hundred were to be labourers and 
farmers. Aviles was authorised to divide out the land in 
repartimientos among the settlers, and to construct at 
least two towns, each of them to have not less than one 
hundred inhabitants, and to be provided with a fort for its 
protection. The company was to include four members of 
the Society of Jesus with ten or twelve monks of any order 
he saw fit ; and he was granted the privilege of transporting 

142 



Departure of Aviles for Florida 143 

to Florida five hundred negro slaves/ taken from Spain, 
Portugal, the Cape de Verde Islands, or Guinea, of whom 
one-third were to be women, to assist in the construction 
of the towns, the cultivation of the land, the planting of 
sugar-cane, and the manufacture of sugar. He was es- 
pecially enjoined to see that none of his colonists were 
contaminated by heresy, and that there were no Jews, 
Moors, or Marranos among them.'^ He was ordered to 
take with him a hundred horses and mares, two hundred 
sheep, four hundred swine, four hundred lambs, and some 
goats, with what other stock he saw fit. 

He was ordered to reconnoitre the Gulf coast of the 
peninsula and from the Florida Keys as far north as 
Newfoundland, and to make a full report upon the ports, 
currents, rocks, shoals, and bays of the same. And 
finally came the main purpose of the asiento, the expul- 
sion of the French. As the two countries were not only 
at peace, but ostensibly entertaining the most amicable 
relations with each other. Frenchmen could not openly 
be named as having invaded Spanish territory, which 
might be construed as a formal threat against the French 
Government in the face of its solemn protestations that it 
harboured no designs' upon Florida. It was, therefore, 
necessary to disguise the instructions under a compre- 
hensive term which should include the case of the French 
colonists without attributing their irregular action to the 
connivance of the French Crown, and Aviles was directed 
to ascertain "if in the said coast or land there were 
settlers or corsairs or other nations whatsoever not sub- 
ject to Us," and to seek "to drive them out by what 
means you see fit." 

In return for these vast services, which Aviles agreed 

^ Aviles did not immediately avail himself of this provision. 

' " Y que sea gente limpia y no de los prohividos." " Capitulacion y 
asiento con Pero Menendez de Aviles para la poblacion y conquista de la 
Florida, Madrid, 20 de Marzo de 1565," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
418. 



144 The Spanish Settlements 

to undertake entirely at his own expense and without re- 
course either to the King or his successors, Philip gra- 
ciously awarded him an aid of fifteen thousand ducats, 
which Menendez bound himself to repay; a salary of 
two thousand ducats to be derived from the rents and 
products of the land, without recourse to the King in 
the event of any failure to collect ; a grant of land twenty- 
five leagues square, with the title of Marquis attached to 
it, and two fisheries, the one of pearls and the other of 
fish, to be selected by himself. He was allowed to have 
a few vessels of his own and to trade with certain of the 
West India Islands which were carefully specified, and 
he was released from various export and import duties 
for a stated period. He was also allowed to retain all 
that he found aboard the pirates he captured, during a 
term of five years. 

He and his successors were granted in perpetuity the 
title of Adelantado of Florida, and he was appointed 
captain-general of the fleet under his command. He 
was invested with authority to appoint a lieutenant- 
governor for the country to hold ofifice during his ab- 
sence ; he was given the exclusive control of his fleet for 
six years, so that none of his vessels could be detached 
from his service under any pretence, and finally he was 
empowered to appoint an executor to carry out the in- 
tentions of the asiento in the event of his own death 
within the term of three years set for the fulfilment of 
its conditions.' 

The asiento, which in most respects observes the cus- 
tomary formulae employed in such documents, deserves 
our attention for a moment in view of the influence it 
exerted upon subsequent events. Its most remarkable 
provision was that the colonists were to be transferred, 

^ " Capitulacion y asiento con Pero Menendez de Aviles para la pobla- 
cion y conquista de la Florida, Madrid, 20 de Marzo ae 1565," ibid.^ tomo 
ii., pp. 415-427. 



Departure of Aviles for Florida 145 

bound hand and foot in absolute dependence, to 
Aviles. The trade with Florida from the nearer West 
India ports was exclusively subject to his control, and 
this power came to be exerted to the great detriment of 
the colony, and to the repression of all individual initia- 
tive. His salary was dependent upon the productions of 
the soil, and as the latter at no period during the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries ever became a source of 
revenue either to the colony or to the Crown, but as the 
colony, on the contrary, proved a constant source of ex- 
pense, so that even flour and provisions had to be sup- 
plied from abroad, a great and irresistible temptation 
was presented to eke out by illegitimate means a salary 
which otherwise could never be collected. 

Finally, the importation into Florida of the five hun- 
dred negro slaves was a perquisite of Men^ndez, and on 
his failure to bring them the severe labour which they 
were intended to perform would fall upon the few white 
colonists, or, in their default, upon those of their Indian 
neighbours whom the Spaniards might be able to impress. 
The result would be a small zone of the weaker natives, 
its extent limited by the ability of the colonists to hold 
them in subjection, surrounded by the countless braver 
and hostile tribes which would not submit to slavery. It 
is true that the written law was tender of the treatment 
of the Indians and hedged them in every conceivable way 
from the ill-usage of the colonists. But the country was 
greatly isolated, and the colonists, like many before and 
after them, became in this particular a law unto them- 
selves, with what result we shall see in due time. Two 
days after the execution of the asiento the various titles 
and privileges which the King had bestowed upon Menen- 
dez in pursuance of the contract were duly confirmed.' 

'"Real Cedula donando al Adelantado Pero Menendez de Aviles 25 
leguas en cuadro de territorio en la Florida, Madrid, 22 de Marzo de 
1565," ibid., tomo ii., p. 351, " Real Cedula eximiendo a Pero Menendez 



146 The Spanish Settlements 

No one perhaps realised better than Aviles himself the 
importance of anticipating the arrival of the French rein- 
forcements and of striking promptly. So he went in 
person to Madrid and asked to be given four vessels 
already equipped with which to carry out at once the 
reconnaissance, in place of submitting to the delays 
and annoyance of fitting out a great fleet. But the 
Turk was moving on Malta and there were but few 
vessels to meet him, and the request of Menendez was 
denied. As some compensation he was authorised to 
collect four additional vessels and five hundred men in 
the West India Islands.' Menendez, therefore, was 
thrown back upon the original plan and began upon 
the equipment of his fleet. Money for the enterprise 
was collected from his friends. One of these, Pedro del 
Castillo, an alderman of Cadiz, embarked his entire 
fortune in the adventure and also raised the sum of 
twenty thousand ducats for it." Diego Flores de Valdes, 
who had seen fifteen years' service under Menendez in 
most of his daring ventures in the Indies as well as in tha 
Flanders fleets, sold and pawned the greater part of his 
patrimony to further the undertaking of his chief, whom 
he accompanied to Florida.' Menendez himself em- 
del pago de derechos de fundicion de metales." Same date, iln'd., p. 354. 
" Real Cedula concediendo al Adelantado Pero Menendez de Aviles par- 
ticipacion en las rentas, minas y frutos de la Florida." Same date, ihid.^ 
p. 356. " Real Cedula concediendo a Pero Menendez dos pesquerias en la 
Florida, una de perlas y la otra de pescado." Same date, ibid., p. 358. 
" Titulo de Capitan General, expedido al Adelantado Pero Menendez de 
Aviles, de la armada que llevo para el descubrimiento de la Florida." 
Same date, 2(5iV., p. 383. "Titulo de Gobernador y Capitan General de 
la Florida, otorgado a Pero Menendez de Aviles." Same date, ibid., 

p. 385. 

' Meras, " Jornadas," in ibid., tomo i., pp. 56, 57. 

^ Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 53 ; Aviles to Philip H., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 100. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Aug. 2i, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 41 ; Oct. 15, iS^Sr 
ibid., p. loi. 



Departure of Aviles for Florida 147 

barked all of his fortune^ in the enterprise; and as the 
entire expense of it was borne by him, excepting that 
of one ship and two hundred and ninety-nine soldiers 
furnished by the King, he is said by Barcia to have 
expended upon it nearly a million ducats in less than 
fourteen months.' 

With his customary energy and promptness Menendez 
had assembled a fleet of ten vessels at Cadiz by the end 
of June. Most of them ranged from sixty to seventy- 
five tons, except the caravel Sait Antonio^ which was of 
one hundred and fifty, and the San Pelayo, his flag-ship, 
of over nine hundred tons, a very large vessel for that 
day. One was a galley called the Victoria, propelled by 
oars. These were all well supplied with artillery and am- 
munition. The company consisted of fifteen hundred 
souls, eight hundred and twenty of whom were soldiers. 
Many of the latter united in their person the arts of 
peace with their warlike occupation. There were twenty- 
one tailors who sailed in this double capacity, fifteen 
carpenters, and ten shoemakers; indeed nearly all of the 
trades were represented : millers, masons, silversmiths, 
gardeners, and barbers, a hat-maker, and even a weaver 
of silk and a brewer, in all, one hundred and thirty-seven 
soldiers, representing among them thirty-eight trades, 
besides one hundred and seventeen tillers of the soil. 
There were one hundred and seventy seamen including 
eighteen artillery men, and in the San Pelayo sailed 
twenty-seven families. Seven priests accompanied the 
colonists.' Aviles took with him the three mutineers 

1 "All of my fortune," Aviles to Philip II., May i8, 1565, ibid., tomo 
ii., p. 64. 

^Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, Ano MDLXV., p. 69. This probably in- 
cludes the money borrowed from his friends as well as his own fortune. 

^ Barrientos, (" Vida y Hechos," in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la 
Florida, p. 35), says there were twelve priests. Mendoza, in his " Relacion" 
(in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 437), says there were seven priests. 
" Inventario y relacion de los navi'os . . . que lleva el Adelantado Pero 



148 The Spanish Settlements 

from Fort Caroline, whom the Cuban authorities had sent 
prisoners to Spain, as related in a previous chapter.' 

So great was the demand for experienced mariners 
among the various fleets sailing for the Indies that only 
by paying much higher wages than they did was Avil^s 
enabled to obtain his crews ; and even then so inadequate 
was the supply of native sailors that he wrote Philip it 
would be necessary for him to be authorised to embark 
foreigners in his service.^ Diego de Amaya, an experi- 
enced sailor, accompanied the fleet as "piloto mayor." ' 

A number of the relatives of Aviles joined the armada: 
among these were his brother, Bartolom^, who had al- 
ready seen fifteen years' service in the royal navy * ; Gon- 
zalo de Soils de Meras, his brother-in-law, to whom we are 
indebted for the history of the Adelantado, to which refer- 
ence has so frequently been made ; Hernando de Miranda, 
who was married to Aviles's daughter. Dona Catalina*; 
and Pedro Men^ndez de Valdez, a young man of twenty- 
five, relative of the Archbishop of Seville, and who was 
engaged to another of his daughters. So eager had 

Menendez de Aviles en su armada para la conquista y poblacion de la 
Florida" . . . June 28, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 558. On p. 561 it 
says there were four priests. Meras says he was given four additional 
vessels and 500 additional men at the King's cost {ibid., tomo i., p. 57), 
and (p. 52) that there were 2150 men in all, probably including Las Alas's 
fleet. Barcia, {Ensayo, Ano MDLXV, p. 67), says the 500 additional men 
were not furnished him, although the King had ordered them to be sent. 
On p. 68 he says there were nineteen vessels and he gives the names of 
thirteen of them. This probably includes the fleet of Las Alas. Mendoza, 
in his " Relacion" (in Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 442), says there were ten 
vessels in the fleet with which Menendez sailed from Cadiz. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomoii.,p. 75. 

* Aviles to Philip II,, May 18, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 64. He says that 
some were deterred because he was leaving for Florida so late, and in the 
hurricane season. 

2 Aviles to Philip II., May 18, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 65; Sept. il, 1565 
ibid., p. 83. 

^Aviles to Philip II., July 27, 1563, ibid., tomo ii., p. 37. 

^ Ibid., tomo i., p. ccxxvi. 



Departure of Aviles for Florida 149 

Valdez been to accompany the expedition, that, against 
the desire of his prospective father-in-law, he hid himself 
aboard the fleet until after it had sailed.' Francisco 
L6pez de Mendoza Grajalas, the author of another ac- 
count of the voyage, went as chaplain of the fleet, and 
other gentlemen, drawn from the south, as well as from 
Galicia, Biscay, and his native Asturias, sailed with it/ 

Some of his soldiers as well as his ofificers were men of 
experience, who had fought in the Italian wars, such, 
for example, as Pedro Men^ndez Valdez, just mentioned, 
who had seen five or six years of service and had been 
raised in the galleys.' The asiento had authorised him 
to equip a second fleet in the Asturias. The man whom 
Menendez had appointed to this command was Esteban 
de las Alas, from his native town of Aviles, and before 
setting sail Menendez ordered him to join the armada 
at the Canaries with the ships at his disposition without 
touching at Cadiz.* 

He set sail from Cadiz, June 29, 1565, but was com- 
pelled to put back into port by a violent tempest. While 
awaiting the return of fair weather, his fleet received sev- 
eral accessions, and finally he again set out on the 28th of 
July, reaching the Canaries without further adventure on 
the 5th of the ensuing month. He remained there three 
days awaiting the arrival of Esteban de las Alas from 
Gijon. On his failure to appear, Aviles left the islands on 
the 8th,' with the intention of going directly to Dominica; 

•Aviles to Philip II., Sept. ii, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 82. Mendoza, 
" Relacion" in ibid., p. 462. 

*Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 34, 35, 
Barcia, Afio MDLXV., p. 69. 

^ Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 82. 

^"Asiento," ibid., tomo ii., pp. 416, 419; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 34, 35 ; Vigil, Noticias, p. 120. 

^Mendoza, "Relacion," in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 431. 
Aviles to Philip II., Aug. 13, 1565, ZiJeV., p. 70; Barcia, .fi'wjajj'f, Ano 
MDLXV., p. 68 ; Barrientos, in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la 
Florida, p. 34. 



150 The Spanish Settlements 

for the winter was now approaching, and although he 
had first planned to stop at Puerto Rico and Cuba for 
horses and more vessels, he feared that he could not draw 
from the islands sufficient supplies for so prolonged a 
campaign.' The night of his leaving the Canaries his 
flag-ship, the San Pelayo, and another vessel became 
separated from the remainder of the fleet, and Menendez 
determined to continue his journey alone. Within three 
hundred and fifty leagues of Florida he was assailed by 
a violent storm, which carried away all of his masts and 
sails excepting the mainmast; and some of the artillery 
had to be thrown overboard to lighten the vessel. Being a 
seaworthy boat the San Pelayo weathered the gale, which 
lasted two nights and one day, but was compelled to put 
into Puerto Rico for repairs,'^ where Aviles arrived on the 
8th of August. 

The balance of the fleet had a no less trying experience. 
Thursday the 28th, arose a violent storm, accompanied 
by thunder and lightnings that "sought to eat us up 
alive" writes the chaplain. The seas swept entirely over 
the vessels, which had to be lightened, and Mendoza was 
all night long confessing and consoling his companions. 
The storm continued for three days. On Monday the 
6th of August, the fleet anchored at Dominica, where the 
crew of the chaplain's ship captured an immense turtle, 
which it took five men to cut up. 

With naive and graphic egotism Mendoza wrote the 
King an account of his experiences during his stay at 
Dominica: 

" I called an Italian lad of mine and ordered him to take 
half a dozen shirts that were soiled and other clothes, and I 
gave him a little piece of soap to wash them out on shore, 
which he did very well. While my boy remained behind with 

' Barrientos in ibid.^ pp. 35, 36. 

2 Aviles to Philip II., Aug. 13, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
70, 71 ; Mendoza, " Relacion " in ibid., p. 436. 



Departure of Aviles for Florida 151 

four other men washing their clothes, I took a walk in the 
direction of some rocks on the seashore, and amused myself 
gathering shellfish of which there was an abundance; raising 
my eyes, I saw three naked men coming down the side of a 
hill, and as I was in a land of enemies, I felt certain that they 
were Caribs; I took to my heels as fast as I could, and ran to 
my party, and made them all come out and take each half a 
dozen knives and we went to meet them. Drawing near to 
each other until we could talk, they called out that they were 
of our people, which was no small satisfaction to me by reason 
of the risk myself and the others might have run." 

They proved to be the survivors of a party of five sailors 
who had swum ashore from the ships to see the land, two 
of whom had been drowned on the way. Having taken 
in wood and water, Mendoza and his company again 
set sail, and on Friday, July loth, reached Puerto Rico, 
where they found the flag-ship and the other small vessel 
already in port.' 

Aviles, fearful that reinforcements would arrive before 
him and strengthen the position of the French in Florida, 
bent all his energies to outsail them. His purpose was, 
if possible, to seize the island which the three French 
prisoners had told him lay at the mouth of the St. John's, 
possibly Fort George Island, and to fortify it so that Fort 
Caroline would be cut off from reinforcements by sea.' 
With this object in view he pressed his preparations 
forward as rapidly as possible. Hernando de Miranda 
was dispatched to Santo Domingo, where he was to 
collect the horses and the men, which the King had 
agreed to furnish, and take them to Havana, there to 
be joined by Esteban de las Alas, with his fleet, for 
whom he left the necessary directions in Puerto Rico/ 

1 Mendoza, " Relacion" in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 432-436. 
* Aviles to Philip II., Aug. 13, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 72 ; Sept. II, 
1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 75, 

3 Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 37. 



152 The Spanish Settlements 

He appointed Juan Ponce de Leon, the royal accountant, 
and governor of the fort at Puerto Rico, to be his 
lieutenant, as it was the place of rendezvous of all of the 
fleets and forces destined for Florida. He added another 
ship to his squadron, with fifty men and twenty horses, 
and the Governor gave him two barks, one of which he 
took with him to unload the larger vessels, and to re- 
place the ship from Puerto Rico which was to be sent 
back. He used the other as a dispatch boat for Santo 
Domingo and Havana.' 

"Over thirty men deserted and hid themselves in this town," 
writes Mendoza, "among which were three priests, for there 
were seven of us, and could not be found dead or alive, which 
my lord the General felt very greatly, and I no less, for it 
makes hard work for us. The fact is that they offered me in 
this port a chaplaincy with a dollar of alms for every mass said, 
which would not fail me the whole year round ; I did not do it 
because I did not wish that to be said of me, which I hear said 
of others, and because it is a town where one cannot prosper 
very much, and in order to see if by continuing the journey 
Our Lord will not give me some advantage in exchange for my 
labour." ^ 

So anxious was Men^ndez to reach Florida in advance 
of the French, that he determined to start without await- 
ing the arrival of the balance of his Cadiz fleet which had 
not yet reached Puerto Rico, and on the 15th, he sailed 
with only five vessels, on the final stage of his journey, 
with eight hundred souls, five hundred of which were 

' Aviles to Philip II., Aug. 13, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
73 ; Mendoza, " Relacion" in ibid., p. 438. 

2 Mendoza in ibid., tomo ii., p. 437. Mendoza relates that a dispatch 
boat sent to Santo Domingo was captured while on the way by a French 
vessel, which, after taking its papers, dismissed it with the charge to inform 
the Spaniards that the French would be advised of their arrival before the 
Spaniards could get there ; ibid., p. 439. Mendoza thought it was a vessel 
of Ribaut's fleet, ibid., p. 442, and Barcia also, Ensayo, Ano MDLXV., 
p. 69. 



Departure of Aviles for Florida 153 

soldiers, two hundred mariners and "the other hundred 
being of useless people," as he called them, "married 
men, women, children and officials." ' Arrived off Santo 
Domingo August 17th, he called a council of his captains, 
informed them of his intention to proceed, and urged their 
acceptance of it in view of the favourable weather.* The 
council having agreed to it, the bows of the ships were 
turned to the north notwithstanding the timidity of the 
pilots in the dangerous passages amidst the reefs and 
shoals, and the seasickness of the crews in the rough 
waters of the Gulf Stream.* 

During the passage the various officers were named, 
the weapons were put in order and distributed, the sol- 
diers practised daily in shooting at a mark for a prize, 
and the Christian doctrine and litanies were recited 
with prayers and supplications to the Lord for victory.* 
While in the Bahama Channel a happy omen was seen 
in the shape of a brilliant meteor.' Just before making 
land a general rejoicing was held aboard the fleet, flags 
were unfurled, drums were beaten, guns were fired, and a 
double ration was served out." On Sunday, August 25th,^ 

' Mendoza, " Relacion" in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 447 ; Aviles 
to Philip II., Sept. ii, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 75. Deposition of Grauiel 
de Riuera in " Informacion de algunos seruicios," etc., in ibid., tomo ii., 
p. 306 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 

36, 37. 

- Mendoza (" Relacion" in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 442, 443) 
thought that Ribaut was perhaps lying in wait for Menendez on the way 
to Havana and that this change of course to Florida was taken in order to 
avoid him. 

' Mendoza, " Relacion," in ibid., tomo ii., pp. 439-446. 

* Meras in ibid., tomo i., p, 69. 

* Mendoza, " Relacion " in ibid., tomo ii., p. 445. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, ■p'p. 37-39. 
'Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p, 

75. Mendoza, " Relacion" in ibid., tomo ii., pp. 445-447, says Aug. 28th, 
and that the landfall was near the mouth of the St. John's. Meras in 
ibid., tomo i., p. 69, also says Aug. 28th, and that the landfall was near St. 
Augustine. 



154 The Spanish Settlements 

the peninsula was made off Cape Canaveral, and four days 
were spent sailing along the coast in search of the French 
port. Failing to discover it, Menendez at last sent ashore 
to learn of the Indians where it lay, and was informed by 
signs that it was twenty leagues to the north. Coasting 
along eight leagues farther Menendez came upon the 
harbour of the River of Dolphins, previously visited by 
Laudonniere, into which he entered and gave it the name 
of St. Augustine, having discovered it on the festival of 
that saint, the 28th of August, and here the fleet re- 
mained for several days.' 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 39,40; 
Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida tomo ii., pp. 75- 
77 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 69-72. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CAPTURE OF FORT CAROLINE 

ON Tuesday, September 4th/ Men^ndez set sail from 
the harbour of St. Augustine and, coasting north, 
at two o'clock in the afternoon came upon four vessels 
lying at anchor off the mouth of a river. These were the 
Trinity and three other of Ribaut's ships, which he had 
left at the mouth of the St. John's because they were 
too large to pass the bars in safety. One of them was 
flying the Admiral's flag, another the flag of the Captain.' 
Menendez recognised at once that the French reinforce- 
ments had arrived before him, and called a council of his 
captains to consider what action should be taken. In the 
opinion of the council it was deemed advisable to return 
to Santo Domingo, there to await the balance of the fleet, 
which had been dispersed by the tempest, and the arrival 
of the reinforcements under Esteban de las Alas, to win- 
ter in Havana, and to return to Florida in March of the 
following year. But Menendez was of another way of 

1 Both Aviles (letter to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomoii., p. 76) and Laudonniere (i^iV/. Notable, Basanier, p. 104; Hak., 
vol. ii., p. 514), give the date September 4th. Mendoza (" Relacion" in 
Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 447) says Wednesday, September 5th, and Le 
Challeux (" Hist. Memorable " in Reciieil de Pieces sur la Floride, p. 265) 
says Monday, September 3rd, Le Moyne, Meras, and Barrientos do not 
mention any date. 

' Aviles to Philip II., September 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii,, 
p. 76 ; Mendoza, " Relacion " in ibid., p. 447. 

155 



15^ The Spanish Settlements 

thinking. His presence was already known to the enemy, 
four of his ships were so crippled by the gale that they 
could not make good time, and he feared that if the 
French should undertake to chase his fleet, they could 
outsail it. He concluded that it was better to attack at 
once, and, having beaten them, to return to St. Augustine 
and await reinforcements. His advice prevailed, so the 
Spaniards proceeded on their way. When within half a 
league of the French a thunder-storm passed over them, 
followed by a calm, and they were compelled to lie still 
until ten o'clock in the evening, when a land breeze 
sprang up, and they again got under way. Menendez 
had given orders to approach the French ships bow to 
bow, and then to wait and board them at daybreak, for 
he feared they would fire their own vessels and thus 
endanger his, and would then escape to land in their 
row-boats.' 

The Frenchmen soon perceived their approach and be- 
gan firing at them, but their aim was directed too high, 
and the shot passed harmlessly between the masts with- 
out doing any damage.* Regardless of the firing and 
without vouchsafing any reply Menendez kept on his 
course until, passing right in their midst, he drew up the 
bow of the San Pelayo between that of the Trinity and 
another of the enemy's ships. Then he sounded a salute 
on his trumpets and the French replied. When this was 
over Menendez asked, "very courteously," "Gentlemen, 
from where does this fleet come?" "From France," 
answered a voice from the Trinity. "What are you do- 
ing here?" "Bringing infantry, artillery, and supplies 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 41-44 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 72-74 ; Aviles to Philip II., 
Sept. II, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 76. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 45 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 75. Mr. Parkman in )\\% Pioneers 
of France in the New World, Boston, 1893, p. 112, note, discredits tlie 
statement that the French opened fire on the Spaniards as they approached. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 157 

for a fort which the King of France has in this country, 
and for others which he is going to make." "Are you 
Catholics or Lutherans ? " he asked next. "Lutherans, 
and our General is Jean Ribaut," came the response. 
Then the French in turn addressed the same questions 
to the Spaniards, to which Men^ndez himself replied: "I 
am the General; my name is Pedro Menendez de Aviles. 
This is the armada of the King of Spain, who has sent me 
to this coast and country to burn and hang the Lutheran 
French who should be found there, and in the morning I 
will board your ships ; and if I find any Catholics they will 
be well treated." ' In the dead silence which prevailed 
while the parley was in progress, "a stillness such as I 
never heard since I came to the world," writes the Span- 
ish chaplain, those aboard his ship heard a boat put out 
from one of the Frenchmen, carrying a message to their 
flag-ship and the reply of the French commander, "I am 
the Admiral, I will die first," from which they inferred 
that it was a proposition to surrender. When the con- 
versation was ended there followed an exchange of abuse 
and foul words, until Aviles, exasperated and unable to 
restrain his impatience, ordered his crew to draw their 
swords and to pay out the cable so as to board at once. 
The sailors showed some hesitation, and Menendez sprang 
down from the bridge to urge them on and found that the 
cable was caught in the capstan, which caused some delay. 
But the Frenchmen had also heard the signal and, taking 
advantage of the momentary pause, cut their cables, 
passed right through the Spanish fleet, and fled, three 
vessels turning to the north and the other to the south, 
■with the Spaniards in hot pursuit. Menendez with two 
of his ships took the northerly course, but the three 

• Aviles to Philip II., Sept. ii, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
67 ; Mendoza, " Relacion" in ibid., p. 448 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 
76, 77 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 
44, 45. 



158 The Spanish Settlements 

French galleons outsailed him, and at dawn he gave up 
the chase, and, returning to the mouth of the St. John's 
with the intention of pursuing his original plan of seizing 
and fortifying it, reached it at ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing. On attempting its entrance he discovered three 
ships up the river and at the point of the land two com- 
panies of infantry, who brought their artillery to bear 
upon him. So he abandoned the attempt to capture the 
entrance and made for St. Augustine.* 

The three Spanish vessels which took the southerly 
course in pursuit of the remaining French ship continued 
all night. Men^ndez had ordered them to rejoin him at 
the mouth of the St. John's in the morning, and, if un- 
able to do so, to return to St. Augustine. But a storm 
arose and they were obliged to cast anchor off the coast, 
the vessels being so small they did not dare to take to the 
sea. One of the three broke away, and while in this peril 
a French ship was sighted and they were in terror of being 
boarded; but she did not attack them, although she hove 
to within a league. The following day, Thursday, Sep- 
tember 6th, after sighting a second French vessel they 
made for a harbour near at hand, which proved to be that 
of St. Augustine, and on landing found that the other two 
vessels had preceded them, having also arrived the same 
day (September 6th). The harbour was near the village 
of an Indian chief named Seloy, who received them with 
much kindness. The Spaniards at once went to work to 
fortify a large Indian dwelling, probably a communal 
house of the natives, which lay near the water's edge. 
They dug a ditch around it and threw up a breastwork 
of earth and fagots, "these two good captains of ours," 

^ Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. 104, 105; Ilak., vol. ii., p. 514; Le 
Challeux, reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Fran^aise, p. 463 ; Bar- 
rientos in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Relacioncs de la Florida, pp. 45,46; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, Za Florida, tomo i., pp. 78, 79 ; Aviles to Philip II.. 
Sept. II, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 77. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 159 

Patifio and San Vincente, "working with such industry, 
that with only the nails of their soldiers, and without 
other tools, they made a fort for their defence," says 
Mendoza.' And this was the birth of St. Augustine, the 
oldest city in the United States. Its ancient site can no 
longer be determined, but it is known to have been such 
that it did not command the entrance to the harbour, 
could not be discovered from the sea, and was much ex- 
posed to the attacks of the Indians. When, in May of 
the following year, the settlement was moved to a more 
advantageous position, the first location received the 
name of Old St. Augustine from the Spaniards.* 

Aviles at once began disembarking his troops, landing 
two hundred of them. On Friday, the 7th, he sent his 
three smaller ships into the harbour, and three hundred 
more colonists were landed, along with the married men, 
their wives, and children, and most of the artillery and 

' Mendoza, " Relacion" in ibid., tomo ii. , pp. 449-451 ; Aviles to Philip 
II., Sept. II, 1565, ibid., p. 81 ; " Informacioii de algunos servicios presta- 
dos por el Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Mexico, 3 de Abril de 
1595," in ibid., p. 615. 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 114, 
141 ; Juan Lopez de Velasco in his Geografia de las Indias, i£'ji-i^y4, 
Madrid, 1894, p. 160, says of St. Augustine, " fundole primero en el cabo 
de una isia de media legua de ancho y cinco de largo ; y pasose el afio de 
72 a la parte de Tierrafirme," etc. This corresponds substantially to 
Anastasia Island or perhaps the second site of the fort on the promontory 
formed by the sea and North River to the north of the island, for "isla" 
does not necessarily mean an island. In the anonymous " Discurso sobre 
la poblacion de la costa de la Florida e inconvenientes que se ofrecieren 
para su fortificacion e defensa " (MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. 
Navarrete, tomo xiv.. Doc. No. 47, 1577-1580), it is said " Sancto Agustin 
donde primero estubo el Fuerte y gente, es una Islilla pequena, y Sancto 
Agustin donde agora esta el Fuerte y gente es otra que esta junto a la 
primera, donde solia estar primero el Fuerte, y esta dende agora esta es casi 
Isla," etc. (see note p. 252, in this volume). Fairbanks, who was not aware 
of these changes of the site of the settlement, says, in his History of Florida 
(Philadelphia, 1871, p. 133,) " The old town of St. Augustine is built upon 
the precise point that was occupied by Menendez." 



i6o The Spanish Settlements 

ammunition.' On Saturday, Lady's day, September 8th, 
the balance of the colonists, one hundred in number, and 
supplies were put ashore. Then the General himself 
landed amidst the waving of flags, the sounding of 
trumpets and of other instruments of war, and the salutes 
of the artillery. The chaplain, Mendoza, who had gone 
ashore the previous day, advanced to meet him, chanting 
the Je Deuin Laudaimis and carrying a cross which Aviles 
and those with him reverently kissed, falling upon their 
knees. Then Menendez took possession in the King's 
name." The mass of Our Lady was solemnly chanted, 
and the oath was administered to the various ofificials in 
the presence of a large concourse of friendly Indians who 
imitated all of the postures of the Spaniards. Gonzalo 
de Villarroel was appointed adjutant, and ten captains 
were also named. With an eye to the growth of the 
colony the offices of Royal Accountant, Factor, and 
Treasurer were assigned to Esteban de las Alas, Pedro 
Menendez Marques, nephew of the Adelantado, and 
Hernando de Miranda. "For many years they have 
served under me," wrote Aviles to the King, "and since 
all three are married to women of rank it may be that on 
account of their offices and through love for me they may 
bring their wives and households, which may draw other 
married people. For it is a good plan to begin to set- 
tle these Florida provinces with people of rank." ' The 
ceremony was concluded by the serving out of food to 
colonists and Indians alike. The negro slaves were 
quartered in the huts of the Indian village and the work 
on the defences was proceeded with. While this was in 
progress, two of Ribaut's ships, which the Spaniards had 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. il, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Floi-ida, tomo ii., pp. 
71, 81. 

^ Mendoza, " Relacion " in ibid., tomo ii., p. 451. 

3 Aviles to Philip II., Sept. II, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 82 ; Dec. 5, 1565, 
ibid., tomo ii., p. 124, 



Capture of Fort Caroline i6i 

chased on the night of September 4th, made a demonstra- 
tion at the mouth of the harbour, offering combat to the 
San Pelayo and the San Salvador, which were unable to 
cross the bar on account of their size, and lay outside in 
a very exposed situation. But the challenge was not ac- 
cepted, and after watching from a distance the landing 
of the troops, the Frenchmen sailed away the same after- 
noon, and returned to the mouth of the St. John's.' 

Menendez was in great fear lest Ribaut should return, 
attack his fleet while he was unloading, and perhaps cap- 
ture the San Pelayo, which carried the major part of his 
supplies and ammunition ; and he was also most anxious 
to send two of his sloops back to Havana for reinforce- 
ments. For these reasons the unloading was pushed 
rapidly forward. In the meantime he strengthened his 
position, and sought what information he could obtain of 
the situation of the French fort from the Indians. They 
told him that it could be reached from the head of the 
harbour of St. Augustine, without going by sea, indicat- 
ing probably a way by North River and Pablo Creek. 

On September nth Avil^s wrote from St. Augustine 
his report to the King of the progress of the expedition. 
In this first letter from the soil of Florida, Menendez ex- 
hibited the sound judgment which characterised him, the 
result of a wide observation and experience, by seeking 
to provide against those difficulties which had proved the 
chief obstacle in the path of both the French and Spanish 
colonies before him. 

" It will be desirable that Your Majesty give orders, that I 
be provided with a year's supply of corn for each horse which 
I shall bring to these provinces. . . . And for the future, 
in the course of a year I will give orders to sow and plant corn 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. ii, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 77, 78 ; Meras 
in ibid., tomo ii., pp. 79, 80; Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. 105, 106 j 
Hak., vol. ii., pp. 514, 515. 



1 62 The Spanish Settlements 

so that they shall have provender here ; for by no means would 
it do to take it from the Indians, in order not to make enemies 
of them; on the contrary, it will be advisable for us to feed 
those who have none, in order to win their love and friend- 
ship. Let Your Majesty rest assured," he continues, " that if 
I had a million more or less, I would spend it all upon this 
undertaking, because it is of such great service to God Our 
Lord, and for the increase of our Holy Catholic Faith and 
the service of Your Majesty. And therefore I have offered to 
Our Lord, that all that I shall find, win, and acquire, in this 
world shall be for the planting of the Gospel in this land, and 
the enlightenment of its natives, and thus I pledge myself to 
Your Majesty." ' 

Every age and every nation has had its euphemism for 
conquest and aggrandisement, whether it be the service 
of God and the spiritual welfare of the conquered, or the 
interests of civilisation and the material advancement of 
the race. It becomes the Court jargon, the caption of 
bulls and encyclicals, the stock-in-trade of edicts and 
proclamations, until by force of repetition it rings true 
even to those who coin it. How far Men^ndez was 
amenable to this fashionable insincerity it is difficult to 
judge. But it is worthy to remark that when in the 
course of subsequent events his mercy was appealed to 
for the rescue of the French prisoners who fell into his 
hands, it was extended to drummers, fifers, and trumpet- 
ers, and that it was only at the intercession of the priest 
that it embraced his co-religionists.* 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. ii, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
80, 83. 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 89, 103 ; Men- 
doza, " Relacion " in ibid., tomo ii., pp. 464, 465 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., 
pp. 116, 126 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, 
pp. 66, 69 ; Relation of the Dieppe sailor in De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 
29, quoted p. 203, in this volume ; Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 23, 
1566, D^pechcs, p. 62. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 163 

In two days the ships were for the most part unloaded, 
yet so convinced was Men^ndez that Ribaut would return 
as promptly as possible that the San Pelayo did not wait 
to discharge her entire cargo, but set sail for Hispaniola 
at midnight, September loth, with the San Salvador, 
which was carrying the General's dispatches.' The San 
Pelayo took with her some interesting passengers. On 
leaving Cadiz Aviles had been informed by the Seville' 
Inquisition that there were "Lutherans" in his fleet, and, 
having made a perquisition, he discovered and seized 
twenty-five of them, whom he dispatched in the two ves- 
sels to Santo Domingo or Puerto Rico, to be returned to 
Spain. Through one of those singular coincidences by 
which earthly events sometimes compensate each other, 
it so happened that at the very time Aviles was killing 
"Lutherans" in Florida, the "Lutherans" aboard the 
San Pelayo, convinced of the fate which awaited them in 
Seville, rose against their captors. With an equanimity 
equal to that of Mendndez himself, they killed the cap- 
tain, master, and all the Catholics aboard, and made 
their way past Spain, France, and Flanders, to the coast 
of Denmark, where the San Pelayo was wrecked and the 
heretics appear finally to have escaped.^ Men^ndez also 
sent two sloops to Havana for the reinforcements ex- 
pected to arrive with Esteban de las Alas, and for horses. 
Upon the latter he especially counted in his campaign 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 46, 47 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 80; Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 
15. 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 84; Vasalenque in " Informacion de algunos 
servicios," etc., in ibid., tomo ii., p. 615, says the San Pelayo was sent to 
Havana. 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 47 ; 
Barcia {Ensayo, Ano MDCLXV., pp. 77, 84,85), says (p. 77) that there 
were only 15 of them. Seville was not only the rendezvous of many 
" Lutherans " from abroad, but a Protestant community had existed there 
for some time. See Beitrage zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus 
und der Inquisition im sechzehnten Jahrhundert von Dr. Ernst Schafer, 
GUtersloh, 1902, vol. i., p. 345, " Die Gemeinde zu Sevilla." 



i64 The Spanish Settlements 

against the French, as he had lost all but one of those he 
had shipped in Puerto Rico. 

Meanwhile the French at Fort Caroline had remained 
without news of the outcome of the attack. But on the 
reappearance of two of his vessels at the mouth of the 
St. John's, Ribaut went down the river to learn what had 
happened. He met on his way out a boat-load of men 
returning from one of the ships, who told him of their 
encounter with the Spaniards, and informed him that 
they had seen three of the enemy's ships in the River of 
Dolphins and two more in the roads, where the Spaniards 
had disembarked and were fortifying their position.* 
Ribaut returned at once to the fort and, entering the 
chamber of Laudonni&re, who lay there sick with the 
anxiety brought on by the news of his disgrace, proposed 
in his presence and that of the assembled captains and 
other gentlemen, to embark at once with all of his forces 
in the four ships which lay in the harbour, for the Trinity 
had not yet returned, and to seek the Spanish fleet. 
Laudonniere, who was familiar with the sudden storms 
to which the region was subject during September, dis- 
approved of his plan, pointing out the danger to which 
the French ships would be exposed of being driven out 
to sea, and the defenceless condition in which Fort Caro- 
line would be left. The captains, who had received from 
a neighbouring chief the confirmation of the landing of 
the Spaniards and of the defences which they were erect- 
ing, also advised against Ribaut's plan, and counselled 
him at least to await the return of the Trinity before 
putting it into execution. But Ribaut obstinately per- 
sisted in his design, showed the unwilling Laudonniere 

' Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. 105, 106; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 514, 515 ; 
Le Moyne says all four French ships returned the following morning, and 
a sailor swam ashore with a letter from Captain Cossette informing Laudon- 
niere that it was a Spanish fleet, and giving a brief account of the escape of 
the French, and of the Spanish landing at St. Augustine (De Bry, Brevis 
Narraiio, pp. 22, 23). 



Capture of Fort Caroline 165 

CoHgny's instructions, and proceeded to carry it into 
effect. Not only did he take all of his own men with 
him, but carried off thirty-eight of the garrison and 
Laudonni^re's ensign, leaving behind him M. du Lys 
with the sick and disheartened lieutenant in charge of 
the depleted garrison.' September 8th, the very day 
that Men^ndez was taking solemn possession of Florida 
in the name of Philip, he embarked aboard his fleet, but 
waited two days in the harbour until he had prevailed 
upon Captain La Grange to accompany him, although 
La Grange was so distrustful of the enterprise that he 
wished to remain with Laudonniere. September loth, 
Ribaut sailed away. 

It was said that on the departure of the fleet a carousal 
was held on board the vessels, in which Ribaut and his 
captains drank two whole pipes of wine in mock healths 
to the Spaniards. "I drink to the head of Pedro Menen- 
dez and those with him," cried one. "Cursed Span- 
iards ! we will hang them from the yard arms of their own 
ships as well as from ours, so that they will not come 
again to smell out this country of ours! " cried another 
in a way most displeasing to those of the nobler sort 
among the Frenchmen.* 

If we are to trust to the muster-roll of the dispirited 
Laudonniere, the garrison which Ribaut left behind him 
to defend Fort Caroline was ill-fitted to resist an attack 
of the well-fed and well-disciplined Spanish soldiery. 
Here it is in Laudonnifere's own words : 

[Of Captain Ribaut 's company] " I found nine or tenne 
whereof not past two or three had euer drawen sword out of 

' Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. io6, 107; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 515, 516; 
De Bry, Brevis Narratio, pp. 23, 24. 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 72 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 128. Meras says the incident 
was learned from the French women and children captured at Fort Caro- 
line. The toast began with " Marranos Espafioles," literally, "Spaniards 
of Jewish blood but professing Christianity." 



1 66 The Spanish Settlements 

the scabbard; as I thinke. ... Of the nine there were 
foure but yong striplings, which serued Captain Ribault and 
kept his dogs, the fift was [his] cooke; among those that were 
without the fort . . . there was a Carpenter of threescore 
yeeres olde, one a Beere-brewer, one olde Crosse-bowe maker, 
two Shoomakers, and foure or fiue men that had their wiues, 
a player on the [spinet], two seruants of Monsieur de Lys, one 
of Monsieur de Beauhaire, one of Monsieur de la Grange, and 
about fourescore and fiue or sixe in all, counting aswel Lackeys 
as women and children. . . . Those that were left me of 
mine owne company were about sixteene or seuenteene that 
couldebeare armes, and all of them poore and leane; the rest 
were sicke and maymed in the conflict which my Lieutenant 
had against Vtina. " ' 

The total number of colonists remaining in the fort was 
about two hundred and forty.' 

Three days passed without any news of Ribaut, and 
with each departing day the anxiety of the sick Laudon- 
nihre grew upon him. Knowing the proximity of the 
Spaniards, and dreading lest they should make a sudden 
descent upon him, he resolved to make what shift he 
could for his own defence. Although food was again at 
a low ebb, for Ribaut had carried off two of his boats 
with the meal which had been left over after making the 
biscuit for the return to France, and although Laudon- 
nifere himself was reduced to the rations of a common 
soldier, he yet commanded the allowance to be increased 
in order to inspirit his men. He also set to work to re- 

^ Histoire Notable, Basanier. p. io8 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 518. Parkman 
in his Pioneers of France in the New World, Boston, 1893, p. 117, note i, 
states that Hakluyt's translation is incorrect. The bracketed words are 
those which occur in the original French text, incorrectly translated by 
Hakluyt. 

* Le Challeux in " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaffarel, Histoire de 
la Floride Fran^aise, p. 465 ; Le Moyne in De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 
24, says that about 150 persons remained in the fort, of whom scarcely 20 
were in a serviceable condition. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 167 

pair the palisade which had been torn down to supply 
material for the ships, but continued storms hindered 
the work, which was never completed. Two watches 
were set to relieve each other, and two officers. Monsieur 
Saint Cler and Monsieur de la Vigne, were named to go 
the rounds at night and inspect them, for which purpose 
they were each provided with a lantern on account of the 
stormy and foggy weather, and a sand-glass to measure 
the time for the sentinels. And so in weary watching and 
waiting, in rain and discomfort, in uncertainty and anx- 
iety, — for no news had yet come from Ribaut, — ten days 
sped by.* 

Ribaut made at once for St. Augustine ' with two hun- 
dred sailors and four hundred soldiers, which included the 
flower of the garrison at Fort Caroline. At dawn the 
next day he came upon Men^ndez in the very act of at- 
tempting to pass the bar and to land a sloop and two 
boats filled with men and artillery from the San Salvador 
which had sailed at midnight with the Saji Pelayo. The 
tide was out and his boats so loaded that only by a 
miracle was he enabled to cross it with his sloop, and 
escape; for the French, who had at once attempted to 
prevent his landing and thus to capture his cannon and 
the supplies he had on board, got so close to him, 
that they hailed him, and summoned him to surrender, 
promising that no harm should befall him. As soon as 
Ribaut perceived that the boats had gotten out of his 
reach, he gave up the attempt and started in pursuit of 
the San Salvador, which was already six or eight leagues 
away.^ 

Two days later, in confirmation of Laudonni^re's fore- 
bodings, so violent a "norther" arose that the Indians 

' Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. 107-109 ; ffak., vol. ii., pp. 517, 518. 
^ Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 88. 
* Mendoza, " Relacion" in ibid., tomo ii., pp. 452, 453 ; Aviles to Philip 
II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., p. 85 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. So, 81. 



1 68 The Spanish Settlements 

themselves declared it to be the worst they had ever seen 
on the coast.' Menendez at once realised that the proper 
moment had presented itself for an attack upon the fort. 
Calling his captains together, the mass of the Holy Ghost 
was said to bring him enlightenment in forming his plans, 
and then he addressed them : 

" We bear upon our shoulders a very heavy charge, full of 
labour and danger, and were it only in the service of our lord 
the King, I should not wonder at some cowardly weakness 
and faint-heartedness on our part in meeting the hardships 
that come upon us; but the charge which we bear is of the 
Lord Our God and of our King, and miserable must he be 
counted who in such a case would show weakness and fail to 
encourage those under him, . . . for in this we serve 
God and our King, and the guerdon of heaven cannot fail us." 

He then set before them the advantage which the 
moment presented for an attack upon Fort Caroline, 
with its defences weakened by the absence of Ribaut who 
might have taken the best part of its garrison with him, 
and Ribaut's inability to return against the contrary 
wind, which in his judgment would continue for some 
days. His plan was to reach the fort through the forest 
and to attack it. If his approach was discovered, he pro- 
posed, on reaching the margin of the woods which 
surrounded the open meadow where it stood, to display 
the banners in such wise as to lead the French into the 

' Aviles, in his letter of Oct. 15, 1565 {ilnd., tomo ii., p. 85), says the 
storm came on two days after the French fleet had left. Barrientos (in Dos 
Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 48) and Meras (in Ruidiaz, tomo i., 
p. 81), both call it a norther, and they as well as Mendoza (ibid., tomo ii., 
P- 453) observe that it followed the French attack. Laudonniere {Histoire 
Notable, Basanier, p. 107 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 517) says the storm began on 
the same day that Ribaut set sail. It is highly improbable that Ribaut 
would have attempted this attack on the shallow and dangerous Florida 
coast in the midst of a storm. There was probably a succession of storms. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 169 

belief that he was two thousand strong. A trumpeter 
should then be sent to summon them to surrender, in 
which case the garrison should be sent back to France, 
and, if they did not, put to the knife. In the event of 
failure the Spaniards would have become acquainted with 
the way, and could await at St. Augustine the arrival of 
reinforcements in March.' 

Although his plan failed to meet with general approval 
at first, it was finally agreed upon "^ ; but on the following 
day, finding that the soldiers and the women had gotten 
wind of it, and that some dissatisfaction was beginning 
to show itself, Aviles quietly summoned to dine with him 
certain of the captains who had informed him of the dis- 
content and had urged him to change his plan. After 
chiding them for their indiscretion, he advised silence on 
such matters in the future, "as he would punish a venal 
sin in such a case as if it were mortal," and he added 
that, although he gave them leave to express their opinions 
in council, he would "chastise the captain who murmured 
after a decision was reached by depriving him of his com- 
mand and excluding him from the council." And so it 
came about that Avil6s, who in the words of his chaplain, 
"was a great friend of his own opinion," was able to write 
to the King in his letter of October 15th, that his captains 
had approved his plan.' 

Menendez's preparations were made promptly; he 
placed his brother Bartolom^ in charge of the fort at St. 
Augustine, in case of the return of the French fleet. He 
then selected a company of five hundred men, three 
hundred of whom were arquebusmen and the remainder 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 48-51 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 82-S5. 

^ Meras in ibid,, tomo i., p. 85 ; Mendoza, " Relacion " in ibid., tomo ii., 
p. 454. Aviles says briefly in his letter to Philip that all agreed to it 
(letter, Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., p. 85). 

^Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 85 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 85- 
88 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 51, 52. 



170 The Spanish Settlements 

pikesmen and targeteers. On September i6th ' the force 
assembled at the call of trumpets, drums, fifes, and the 
ringing of the bells. After hearing mass, it set out, each 
man carrying on his back his arms, a bottle of wine, and 
six pounds of biscuit, in which Menendez himself set the 
example, for the servants were left at St. Augustine.'' 
Two Indian chiefs, whose hostility the French had in- 
curred, and who had visited Fort Caroline six days be- 
fore, accompanied the party to show the way, "angels 
sent by God," observes Meras,' and Jean Frangois, one 
of the three French prisoners.^ A picked company of 
twenty Asturians and Basques under their captain, Martin 
de Ochoa, led the way armed with axes with which they 
blazed a path through the forest and swamps for the men 
behind them, and Menendez carried a compass with which 
to assist in finding the direction, for it was completely un- 
known to him.^ 

The point of land on which Fort Caroline was situated 
is separated from the seacoast by an extensive swamp 
through which flows the Pablo Creek, which rises but a 
short distance from the head of North River. Around 
this it was necessary for the Spaniards to go, for owing 

' Mendoza (" Relacion" in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 454, 458), 
says September i6th, and Meras (in ibid., tomo i., p. 89), says they were 
four days on the way, which would also bring the start on the i6th. Aviles 
does not give the date of departure, but speaks of a storm on the iSth 
(letter to Philip II.,. Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 86). It is, however, 
to be noted that the punctuation of this paragraph in the letter is in all 
probability that of the editor. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 85. 

^ Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 89 ; Mendoza, " Relacion" inibid., tomo ii., 
p. 454 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 52. 

* Histoire Notable, Basanier, p. no; Hak., vol. ii., p. 519; Meras in 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 84. 

' Noriega had enquired of Meleneche, one of the three Frenchmen sent to 
Seville, how Fort Caroline could be reached by land, and the Frenchman 
had described an approach from the St. John's River (Noriega to Philip II., 
March 29, 1565, MS. Djrec, de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo 
xiv., doc. 33, fol. 6). 



Capture of Fort Caroline 171 

to the continued rains all of the creeks and rivers were 
full and the lowlands flooded. At no time was the water 
lower than up to their knees. No boats were taken along, 
so the soldiers swam the various creeks and streams, 
Aviles taking the lead with a pike in his hand at the very 
first one they encountered. Those wHo could not swim 
were carried across on the pikes. It was extremely 
fatiguing work, "for the rains continued as constant and 
heavy as if the world was again to be overwhelmed with 
a flood." * Their clothes became soaked and heavy with 
water, their food as well, the powder wet, and the cords 
of the arquebuses worthless, and some of the men began 
to grumble, but Menendez pretended not to hear. The 
vanguard selected the place for the night encampment, 
but it was difficult to find high ground on account of the 
flood. During the halts a fire was built, but when within 
a day's march of Fort Caroline, even this was forbidden, 
lest it betray their approach to the enemy."^ 

Thus the Spaniards pushed on for two days through 
wood and thicket, river and marsh, with not even a trail 
to follow. On the evening of the third day, September 
19th, Menendez reached the neighbourhood of the fort. 
The night was so stormy and the rain fell so heavily, that 
he thought he could approach it without being discovered, 
and he encamped for the night in the pine grove on the 
edge of the meadow within less than a quarter of a league 
from it. The spot he had chosen was marshy and com- 
fortless ; in places the water stood up to the belts of the 
soldiers, and no fire could be lighted for fear of revealing 
their presence to the French.^ 

' De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 24. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 52, 53 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 89, 90 ; Mendoza, " Relacion" 
in ibid., tomo ii., pp. 454, 458, 459. 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Rulaciones de la Florida, pp. 53, 54 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 89, 90 ; " Informacion de algu- 
nos servicios," etc., in ibid., tomo ii., p. 615. 



172 The Spanish Settlements 

Inside Fort Caroline La Vigne was keeping watch with 
his company, but his sentinels, wet and worn with the 
heavy rain, so moved his heart to pity, that with the ap- 
proach of day he let them depart, and finally went him- 
self to his own lodging.* 

With the break of day, September 20th, the feast of St. 
Matthew, Menendez was already alert. Before dawn he 
held a consultation with his captains, after which the en- 
tire party knelt down and prayed for a victory over their 
enemies. Then he set out for the fort over the narrow 
path which led to it from the woods. The French pris- 
oner, Jean Francois, led the way, his hands bound behind 
him, and the end of the rope held by Menendez himself. 
So intense was the darkness that the Spaniards soon lost 
the path in crossing a marsh with water up to their knees, 
and were compelled to wait until daybreak in order to 
find the way again. When morning came, Menendez set 
out in the direction of the fort, and on reaching a slight 
elevation Jean announced that Fort Caroline lay just be- 
yond, down on the river's edge. Then the camp master, 
Pedro Menendez Valdez and the Asturian, Ochoa, went 
forward to reconnoitre. They were hailed by a man they 
took to be a sentinel. "Who goes there?" he cried. 
"Frenchmen," they answered, and, closing with him, 
Ochoa struck him in the face with his knife, which he had 
not even unsheathed. The Frenchman warded off the 
blow with his sword, but in stepping back to avoid a 
thrust from Valdez he tripped, fell backwards, and 
began shouting. Then Ochoa stabbed him and killed 
him. Menendez, hearing the shouting, thought that 
Valdez and Ochoa were being slain, and cried out 
"Santiago, at them! God help us! Victory! the French 
are killed! The camp master is inside the fort and 
has taken it," and the entire force rushed down the 

' Histoire Notable, Basanier, p. 109 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 519. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 173 

path. On the way two Frenchmen whom they met 
were killed.' 

Some of the Frenchmen living in the outhouses set up 
a shout on seeing two of their number killed, at which a 
man within the fort opened the wicket of the main en- 
trance to admit the fugitives. The camp master closed 
with him and killed him, and the Spaniards poured 
into the enclosure.'' Laudonni^re's trumpeter had just 
mounted the rampart, and seeing the Spaniards coming 
towards him sounded the alarm. The French, — most of 
whom were still asleep in their beds, — taken entirely by 
surprise, came running out of their quarters into the 
driving rain, some half-dressed, others quite naked, or 
clad only in their night-shirts. Among the first was 
Laudonnifere, who rushed out of his house in his shirt,' 
his sword and target in his hands, and began to call his 
soldiers together. But the enemy had been too quick 
for them, and the wet and muddy court was soon reeking 
with the blood of the French, cut down by the Spanish 
soldiers, who now filled it. At Laudonnifere's call, some 
of his men had hastened to the breach on the south side, 
where lay the ammunition and the artillery. But they 
were met by a party of Spaniards who repulsed and killed 
them, and who finally raised their standards in triumph 
upon the walls. Another party of Spaniards entered by 
a similar breach on the west, overwhelming the soldiers 
who attempted to resist them there, and also planted 
their ensigns on the rampart." 

Le Challeux, the old carpenter, had just left his cabin 
on his way to his work with his chisel in his hand, when 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Relacioties de la Florida, pp. 53-55 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 93-96. 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Rclaciones de la Florida, pp. 55, 56. 

' Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 145. 

^ Histoire Notable, Basanier, p. 109 ; Hak.,vo\. ii., p. 519 ; Le Moyne also 
says that the fort was attacked in three places at once (De Bry, Brevis Nar- 
ratio, p. 24). 



174 The Spanish Settlements 

he was surprised by the Spaniards. Two of them im- 
mediately set upon him with a pike and partizan. Al- 
though an old, grey-headed man of sixty, he jumped the 
rampart, which was eight or nine feet high, and fled to 
the forest, still gripping his chisel in the excitement of 
the escape. As he crossed the meadow and neared the 
edge of the wood, he reached an elevation, and finding 
that he was no longer pursued, he turned to look back. 

" And as from that point, all of the fort and even the 
court was visible, I saw there a horrible killing which was 
being made of our people and three ensigns of our adversa- 
ries planted upon the ramparts. Losing all hope of seeing our 
people rally, I resigned all of my senses to the Lord, recom- 
mended myself to his mercy, grace, and favour, and plunged 
into the forest, for it seemed to me I could find no greater 
cruelty among the wild beasts than that of the enemy, which I 
had seen overflow upon our people." ' 

Le Moyne, the artist, still lame in one leg from a wound 
he had received in the campaign against Outina, was of 
the watch which had just turned into its quarters. Wet 
through as he was, he laid down his arquebus and threw 
himself into a hammock to get a little sleep. But the 
outcries and the sound of blows proceeding from the 
court aroused him, and as he rushed to the door to see 
what was the matter, two Spaniards with drawn swords 
brushed by him into the house. He quickly saw that 
the court had been turned into a slaughter pen by the 
Spaniards who now held it, so he fled back at once, and 
made for one of the embrasures. Passing over the dead 
bodies of five or six of his fellow-soldiers, he pushed 
through it, leaped down into the ditch, and escaped into 
the neighbouring wood.^ 

' " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaffarel, Histoire de la Floride, pp. 
465, 466. 

* De Bry, Brevis Narratio, pp. 24, 25. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 175 

Menendez had remained outside urging his troops on 
to the attack, but when he saw a sufficient number of 
them advance, he ran to the front, shouting out that 
under pain of death no women were to be killed, nor any 
boys of less than fifteen years of age.* Aviles had headed 
the attack on the south-west breach, and after repulsing 
its defenders, he came upon Laudonnifere, who was run- 
ning to their assistance. Jean Francois, the renegade 
Frenchman, pointed him out to the Spaniards, and their 
pikemen drove him back into the court. Seeing that the 
place was lost, and unable to stand up alone against his 
aggressors, Laudonniere turned to escape through his 
house. The Spaniards pursued him, but a tent standing 
in the way distracted their attention, and while they were 
busy cutting its cords, he escaped by the western breach. 
As he was making for the woods, one of the pikemen 
nearly overtook him and gave him a thrust with his 
spear.^ His maid-servant, who also made her escape, re- 
ceived a dagger-thrust in the breast.^ 

Meanwhile the trumpeters were announcing a victory 
from their stations on the ramparts beside the flags. At 
this what French remained alive entirely lost heart, 
and while the main body of the Spaniards were going; 
through the quarters, killing without mercy the old, thel 
sick, and the infirm, quite a number of the Frenchmen 
succeeded in getting over the palisade and escaping.* 
Some of the fugitives made their way into the forest. 
Jacques Ribaut with his ship the Pearl, and another vessel 
with a cargo of wine and supplies, were anchored in the 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 56 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 98. 

'^Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 86; Histoire 
Notable, Basanier, p. no; Hak., vol. ii., p. 520. 

* De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 26 ; Le Challeux, reprint in Gaffarel's 
Histoire de la Floride, p. 465. 

■* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 56 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i. , pp. 97, 98. 



176 The Spanish Settlements 

river but a very short distance from the fort ' and rescued 
others who rowed out in a couple of boats ; and some even 
swam the distance to the ships. 

By this time the fort was virtually won, and Menendez 
turned his attention to the vessels anchored in the neigh- 
bourhood. A number of women and children had been 
spared owing to his exertions, and his very first thoughts 
turned on how he could rid himself of them. His de- 
cision was promptly reached, A trumpeter with a flag 
of peace was sent to summon some one to come ashore 
from the ships to treat of conditions of surrender. Re- 
ceiving no response, he sent Jean Francois to the 
Pearl with the proposal that the French should have a 
safe-conduct to return to France with the women and 
children in any one vessel they should select, provided 
they would surrender their remaining ships and all of 
their armament." But Jacques Ribaut would listen to 
no such terms, and on his indignant refusal, Le Challeux 
tells us that the enraged Spaniards, who had gathered 
down by the river-bank, where the corpses of the slain had 
been heaped together, tore out the eyes of the dead with 
the points of their daggers and hurled them at the French 
ships amidst howls and insults.' Menendez then turned 
the guns of the captured fort against Ribaut and suc- 

^ Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
86), says there were three ships, but he afterwards speaks of them as only 
two. Le Moyne says the Pearl of Jacques Ribaut was the only one of 
Jean Ribaut's three vessels within the bar at the time which was taken up to 
the fort (De Bry, Brevis N'arraiio, p. 26); and this is confirmed by A\-iles in 
the letter just cited (p. 86), where he says that two of the seven ships from 
France were down the river. 

- Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 57 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 98-101. He says that the man 
sent to the ship was the sentinel first captured. This is improbable, as he 
is said to have been killed in the first attack. Aviles, in his letter of Oct. 
15. 1565 {ibid., tomo ii., p. 86), mentions no such conditions ; Le Challeux, 
reprint in Gaffarel, p. 468. 

* " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 468. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 177 

ceeded in sinking one of the vessels in shallow water, 
where she could be recovered without damage to her 
cargo.' 

Jacques Ribaut received the crew of the sinking ship 
into the Pearl, and then dropped a league down the 
river to where stood two more of the ships which had 
arrived from France, and which had not even been un- 
loaded. Hearing from the carpenter, Jean de Hais, who 
had escaped in a small boat, of the taking of the fort, 
Jacques Ribaut concluded to remain a little longer in the 
river to see if he might save any of his unfortunate 
compatriots.* 

So successful had been the attack, that the victory was 
complete within an hour' without loss to the Spaniards 
of a single man, and only one was wounded. Of the two 
hundred and forty French in the fort, one hundred and 
thirty-two were killed outright, including the two Eng- 
lish hostages left by Hawkins.* About half a dozen 
drummers and trumpeters were held as prisoners, of 
which number was Jean Memyn, who has left us a short 
account of his experiences " ; fifty women and children 
were captured, and the balance of the garrison got away 

* Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 86. 
There can be hardly any doubt but that the incomplete sentence in Men- 
doza's " Relacion " {ibid., tomo ii., p. 460): " Tiraronla un tiro de los que 
ellos \i. e., the French] tenian en su fuerte y hecharonla a fondo, pero esta 
en parte donde . . . ni lo que en el esta se perdera," has the signifi- 
cance given it in the text. This may account for Le Challeux's saying that 
no harm was done the ship by the Spanish shot, the rain having affected 
the cannon ; " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, 
p. 468. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
86 ; Barrientos, in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 57 ; 
Histoire Notable, Basanier, p. iii ; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 520, 521. 

^ Mendoza, " Relacion" in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 459. Vasa- 
lenque says two hours. " Informacion de algunos servicios," etc., in ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 615. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 90. 
'" See Appendix M, The Deposition of Jean Memyn. 



17S The Spanish Settlements 

as has been related.' In a work written in France some 
seven years later, and first published in 1586/ it is related 
that Aviles hanged some of his prisoners on trees and 
placed above them the Spanish inscription, "I do this 
not to Frenchmen, but to Lutherans." ' The story found 
ready acceptance among the French of that period, and 
was eagerly believed and repeated subsequently by his- 
torians, both native and foreign,^ but it is unsupported by 
the testimony of a single witness, and bears all the ear- 
marks of an apocryphal origin. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
86, 87. Le Challeux (reprint in Gaffarel's Histoire de la Floride, p. 465) 
says all of the women and children were killed. Mendoza in his " Rela- 
cion " (Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 459), says that 142 were killed. Vasa- 
lenque, who was in the attack on the Spanish side, testifies thirty years later 
that 600 French were killed ! (" Informacion de algunos servicios," etc., in 
ibid., tomo ii., p. 615). Aviles in the letter just cited {ibid., p. 80) says 132 
men were killed in the attack and 10 more on the next day, and 50 or 60 
escaped. Fourquevaux, in his letter to Charles IX., of Feb. 22, 1566 
{Ddpiches, p. 61), says 30 women and 18 children were saved. 

■^ La Reprise de la Floride, Larroque, p. 23, note i. 

^ Larroque, ibid., p. 61. 

^ Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Paris, MDCXI., liv. i., p. 
127 ; Charlevoix, Histoire et Description generale de la Nouvelle France, 
Nyon Fils, Paris, 1744, vol. i., p. 81 ; Bancroft, History of the United 
States, 15th ed., Boston, 1855, vol. i., p. 71 ; Gaffarel, Histoire de la 
Floride, p. 229 ; Parkman {Pioneers of France in the New World, 1895, p. 
127) very candidly gives his own opinion on the subject : " Though no eye- 
witness attests it, there is reason to think it true." Shea omits the incident 
entirely in his The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, and discredits it in his 
"Ancient Florida" {Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 272), as does 
Barcia {Ensayo, Afio MDLXVIII., p. 136). To an impartial judgment the 
doubt as to the credibility of the story of the alleged inscription amounts 
almost to a certainty, although based entirely upon negative evidence. One 
asks. Why was it not mentioned by Jean Memyn, who remained for some 
time after the event at Fort Caroline ? Why does not Aviles refer to it in 
his letters to Philip? Why is it not spoken of in the "Informacion de 
algunos servicios," or by Mendoza, who would heartily have approved of it ? 
What interest or object had the contemporary Spanish accounts in suppress- 
ing an incident, which, in their estimation, could only redound to the credit 
of the Adelantado? And why did Aviles hang the Huguenots at Fort 
Caroline and not at Matanzas ? 



Capture of Fort Caroline 1 79 

Throughout the attack the storm had continued and 
the rain had poured down, so that it was no small com- 
fort to the bedraggled soldiers, weary with the difficult 
march and the excitement of the fight, when Jean Fran- 
gois pointed out to them the storehouse, where they all 
obtained dry clothes, and where a ration of bread and 
wine with lard and pork was served out to each of them. 
Most of the food stores were looted by the soldiers. 
Men^ndez found five or six thousand ducats' worth of 
silver, largely ore, part of it brought by the Indians from 
the Appalachian Mountains,' and part collected by Lau- 
donnifere from Outina, from whom he had also obtained 
some gold and pearls/ Most of the artillery and ammu- 
nition brought over by Ribaut had not been landed, and 
as Laudonni^re had traded his with Hawkins for the ship 
but little was captured/ To the horror of the Spaniards ^~ 
not a cross nor an image could be discovered about the 
fort, but they found six good strong-boxes "filled with 
books well bound and gilded, all pertaining to their evil 
sect." Packs of playing-cards were also discovered with 
pictures of the Host and Chalice on their backs, and 
saints carrying crosses in mockery of holy things.* The 
books were at once ordered to be burned, a fate which > 
was probably shared by the playing-cards. Men^ndez 
further captured eight ships, one of which was a galley 
in the dockyard ; of the remaining seven, five were French, 
including the vessel sunk in the attack, the other two were 
those captured off Yaguana, already mentioned, whose 
cargoes of hides and sugar Hawkins had taken with him.' 

' Aviles to Philip II., Oct, 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 90. 

* De Bry, Brevis Nar ratio, pp. 9, 12. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1665, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii. , p. go. 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 57 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. iii ; Mendoza, " Relacion" in 
ibid., tomo ii., p. 460. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 91. See Appen- 
dix N, The Captured French Vessels. 



i8o The Spanish Settlements 

In the afternoon Men^ndez assembled his captains, and 
after pointing out how grateful they should be to God for 
the victory, called the roll of his men, and found only 
four hundred present, many having already started on 
their way back to St. Augustine. Men6ndez was himself 
anxious to return at once, for he was in constant dread 
of a descent of the French fleet upon his settlement 
there. He also wished to attempt the capture of Jacques 
Ribaut's ships before they had left the St. John's, and 
to get ready a vessel to transport the women and children 
of the French to Santo Domingo, and from there to 
Seville, for the fate of the latter weighed heavily upon 
his mind. "It is with the greatest sorrow that I see them 
in company with my people, on account of their evil 
sect," he wrote the King, "and yet I feared that Our 
Lord would punish me, if I acted towards them with 
cruelty." ' 

He appointed Gonzalo de Villarroel harbour master and 
governor of the district and gave the fort, which he had 
named San Mateo, into his charge, having captured it on 
the feast of St. Matthew. The camp master, Valdez, who 
had proved very daring in the attack and a garrison of 
three hundred men were left to defend the fort, and the 
arms of France were torn down from over the main en- 
trance and replaced by the royal arms surmounted by a 
cross supported above the crown by two angels. The 
device was painted by two Flemish soldiers in his little 
army. Then two crosses were erected inside the fort, 
and a location was selected for a church to be dedicated 
\to St. Matthew. 

When Men^ndez came to look about him for an escort 
he found his soldiers so utterly exhausted with the march, 
the wet, the mire, the sleepless nights, and the battle, that 
not a man was to be found willing to accompany him. 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 105, 106; Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 
1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 87. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 



I8l 



He therefore determined to remain over night and then 
to proceed to St. Augustine in advance of the main body 
of his men with a picked company of thirty-five of those 
who were least fatigued.' 

The fate of the fugitives from Fort Caroline was various 
and eventful. When Laudonniere reached the forest, he 
found there a party of men who had escaped like him- 
self, and three or four of whom were badly wounded. A 
consultation was held as to what steps should be taken, 
for it was impossible to remain where they were for any 
length of time, without food, and exposed at every mo- 
ment to an attack from the Spaniards. Some of the 
party determined to take refuge among the natives, and 
set out for a neighbouring Indian village.' These were 
subsequently ransomed by Menendez and returned by 
him to France.' Laudonniere then pushed on through 
the woods, where his party was increased the following 
day by that of the artist, Jacques Le Moyne. 

Wandering along one of the forest paths with which he 
was familiar, Le Moyne had come upon four other fugi- 
tives like himself. After consultation together the party 
broke up, Le Moyne going in the direction of the sea to 
find Ribaut's boats, and the others making for an Indian 
settlement. Setting out alone, Le Moyne soon encoun- 
tered a soldier, a tailor by trade, who had been at work 
on a suit of clothes for Ottigny. The two joined com- 
pany, and were all day pushing through the woods. 
Then came the swamps with their heavy growth of reeds, 
the laborious struggle all night long to get through them, 
the continuing rain, and the rising of the tide until the 
water reached to the waists of the fugitives. When 
morning broke and the sea was not yet sighted, the poor 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 102-104 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Aniiguas 

Relaciones de la Florida, p. 58. 

* Histoire Notable, Basanier, p. no; Hak., vol. ii., p. 520, 

3 Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 59 ; 

Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 105. 



1 82 The Spanish Settlements 

tailor gave up in despair, and determined to return to 
the Spaniards, hoping that his gentle trade would arouse 
their compassion, and Le Moyne, after vainly trying to 
dissuade him, finally agreed to go with him. Back 
through the forest they plodded painfully until in sight 
of Fort Caroline, when the noise of the uproar and re- 
joicings which arose from the victorious Spaniards im- 
pressed Le Moyne so deeply that he again pleaded with 
his companion to remain with him. But the tailor was 
determined to make the attempt and, writes Le Moyne, 

" he embraced me, saying, ' I will go; so farewell.' In order 
to see what should happen to him, I got up to a height near 
by and watched. As he came down from the high ground, 
the Spaniards saw him, and sent out a party. As they came 
upon him, he fell on his knees to beg for his life. They, 
however, in a fury, cut him to pieces, and carried off the dis- 
membered fragments of his body on the points of their spears 
and pikes." * 

What little hope Le Moyne himself may have entertained 
of receiving mercy from the victors, was now utterly 
abandoned, and again hiding himself in the forest, he re- 
traced his steps, encountering on the way other fugitives 
like himself, and the poor maid-servant ; and finally, while 
still in the forest, came upon the party of Laudonni^re.* 
Laudonnifere had taken the direction of the sea in the 
evident hope of finding the vessels Ribaut had sent inside 
the bar. After a while the marshes were reached, 

** where," he writes, " being able to go no farther by reason 
of my sicknesse which I had, I sent two of my men which 
were with me, which could swim well, vnto the ships to aduer- 
tise them of that which had happened, and to send them word 
to come and helpe me. They were not able that day to get 

' De Bry, Brevis A^arratio, p. 26 ; English translation by Fred. B. Per- 
kins in Narrative of Le Moyne, Boston, 1875, p. ig. 
' De Bry, Brevis Narratio, pp. 24-26. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 183 

vnto the ships to certifie them thereof: so I was constrained 
to stand in the water vp to the shoulders all of that night long, 
with one of my men which would neuer forsake me." ' 

And now through the water and the tall reeds came 
the old carpenter, Le Challeux, with another party of 
refugees. After his escape from the fort he wandered for 
half an hour through the forest until he heard a sound of 
weeping and groaning, and drawing near to it discovered 
a party of men, among whom was M. Robert ; and farther 
along he came upon another company. Deliberating as 
to what should be done, some of the fugitives decided to 
surrender themselves to the mercy of the Spaniards, and 
on leaving the forest for that purpose they were seized 
and killed, and their bodies thrown onto the heap of the 
dead, on the river-bank. Le Challeux and six others of 
the company decided to make their way to the coast in 
the hope of being rescued by fhe ships which had re- 
mained below in the river. On reaching the summit of 
a high mound they finally discovered the sea, which still 
lay a great distance off, and on descending from the hill 
they entirely lost sight of it. Pursuing the direction in 
which they had seen the ocean, they plunged onwards 
through bushes and thickets, which tore and cut their 
hands, waded marshes where the sharp leaves of the 
grasses and reeds pricked their feet and cut their legs 
until the blood ran, and where the water reached to 
their waists, until they came to a stream so swift that 
none dared swim it. Le Challeux cut a pole with the 
chisel which he still carried in his hand. Floating it 
upon the water the end next the bank was held steady 
while a comrade clung to it as he made his way to the 
centre of the stream, and when he had reached the 
end and his head disappeared under the swift current, a 
vigorous push sent him across into the shallow water, 

' "A Notable Historie," in Hak., ii., p. 520; Basanier, p. no. 



184 The Spanish Settlements 

where he scrambled to his feet with the aid of the reeds 
and grasses. They passed the night in a grove of trees in 
view of the sea, and the following morning, as they were 
painfully struggling through a large morass, they ob- 
served some men half hidden by the reeds, whom they 
took to be a party of Spaniards come down to cut them 
off. But closer observation showed that they were 
naked, and terrified like themselves, and when they re- 
cognised their leader, Laudonni^re, and others of their 
companions, they joined them. The entire company 
now consisted of twenty-six. 

Two men were now sent to the top of the highest trees 
from which they discovered one of the smaller of the 
French ships, that of Captain Maillard, which presently 
sent a boat to their rescue. The boat next went to the 
relief of Laudonnifere, who was so sick and weak that he 
had to be carried to it. Before returning to the ship, the 
remainder of the company were gathered up from among 
the reeds and rushes, the men, exhausted with hunger, 
anxiety, and fatigue, having to be assisted into the boat 
by the sailors.' 

A consultation was now held between Jacques Ribaut 
and Captain Maillard, and the decision was reached to re- 
turn to France. But in their weakened state, with their 
arms and supplies gone and the better part of their crews 
absent with Jean Ribaut,^ the escaped Frenchmen were 
unable to navigate all three of the vessels ; they therefore 
selected the two best and sank the other. The armament 
of the vessel bought from Hawkins was divided between 
the two captains and she was abandoned. Thursday, 
September 25th, the prows of the two ships were turned 
for France, but they parted company the following day. 
Jacques Ribaut with Le Challeux and his party, after an 

^ Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. no, in; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 520, 521 \ 
Le Challeux, reprint in Gaffarel, pp. 467-471. 
* De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 27. 



Capture of Fort Caroline 185 

adventure on the way with a Spanish vessel, ultimately- 
reached La Rochelle.' The other vessel, with Laudon- 
nifere aboard, was driven by foul weather into Swansea 
Bay in South Wales, where he again fell very ill. Part 
of his men he sent to France with the boat. With the 
remainder he went to London, where he saw M. de Foix, 
the French ambassador, and from there he proceeded to 
Paris. Finding that the King had gone to Moulins, he 
finally set out for it with part of his company to make his 
report, and reached there about the middle of March of 
the following year.* 

' " Histoire Memorable," Le Challeux, reprint in GafTarel, Hist, de la 
Floride, p. 472. Alava to Philip II., Dec. 21, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., 
Paris, K, 1504 (88), mentions the arrival of Jacques Ribaut in Normandy. 

* Histoire Notable, Basanier, pp. 112-114; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 521-523. 



CHAPTER X 

THE FATE OF RIBAUT'S FLEET 

THE morning following the capture of Fort Caroline 
Menendez set out on his return to St. Augustine. 
But he first sent the camp master with a party of fifty- 
men to look for those who had escaped over the palisade, 
and to reconnoitre the French vessels which were still 
lying in the river, and whom he suspected of remaining 
there in order to rescue their compatriots. Twenty 
fugitives were found in the woods, where they were all 
shot down, and towards evening the camp master re- 
turned to Fort Caroline, having found no more French- 
men. 

The return to St. Augustine proved still more arduous 
and dangerous than the journey out. After marching 
through the forest for some time Men6ndez reached a 
hummock by which he had passed before, but on at- 
tempting to proceed beyond it he found the country 
overflowed. Nothing daunted by this, he continued the 
advance, the water continually increasing in depth, until 
he was at last forced to retrace his steps. But the di- 
rection had been lost : in vain he searched for a little dry 
ground where he could camp for the night; everywhere 
under the tall palmettos stretched the waste of waters. 
Then Menendez sent the most agile of his companions 
up one of the highest trees to look for dry land. The 
soldier's answer brought no comfort ; even from the sum- 

i86 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 187 

mit of the tall trees no dry land was visible. Then Me- 
nendez ordered him to find the direction of the setting 
sun, but the cloud-banks were so heavy that it was im- 
possible to determine even that. Wearily the party 
waited for the weather to clear, and towards the after- 
noon the clouds parted sufficiently for Menendez to 
recover his direction and push forward. On went the 
Spaniards, crossing the deeper and larger streams on the 
trunks of trees, which they felled in such wise as to afford 
them a bridge. Again a tall palmetto was climbed, and 
at last the trail found by which they had come. They 
encamped that night on a bit of dry ground, where a 
roaring fire was built to dry their soaking garments, but 
all in vain, as the heavy rain began again.' 

Three days after Menendez's departure from St. Augus- 
tine, September 19th, a force of twenty men was sent to 
his relief with supplies of bread and wine and cheese, but 
the settlement remained without further news of him. 
On Saturday "we clergy, wishing to eat a little fish," 
writes Mendoza, the fishermen went down to the beach 
to cast their nets, where they discovered a man whom they 
seized and conducted to the fort. He proved to be a 
member of the crew of one of Jean Ribaut's four ships 
and was in great terror of being hung. But the chaplain 
examined him, and finding that he was "a Christian," of 
which he gave evidence by reciting the prayers, he was 
promised his life if he told the truth. His story was that 
in the storm that arose after the French demonstration 
in front of St. Augustine their frigate had been cast away 
at the mouth of a river four leagues to the south of St. 
Augustine and five of the crew were drowned. The next 
morning the survivors had been set upon by the natives 
and three more had been killed with clubs. Then he and 
a companion had fled along the shore, walking in the sea 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Rclaciones de la Florida, pp. 58-61 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 104-105. 



1 88 The Spanish Settlements 

with only their heads above the water in order to escape 
the observation of the Indians. 

Bartolom^ Menendez sent at once a party to float the 
frigate off and bring it up to St. Augustine, for on that 
low and sandy beach, shelvy and devoid of rocks, ves- 
sels are frequently driven high up on the land.' But 
when the Spaniards approached the scene of the wreck, 
the Indians, who had already slaughtered the balance of 
the crew, drove them away. A second attempt proved 
more successful and the vessel was brought up to St. 
Augustine, to the great delight of the Spaniards.' 

The continued absence of news from the expedition 
against Fort Caroline had begun to cast a gloom over the 
Spaniards at St. Augustine. San Vincente, one of the 
captains who had remained behind, prophesied that Av- 
iles would never come back, and that the entire party 
would be killed.' This impression was confirmed by the 
return of a hundred men, made desperate by the hard- 
ships of the march, and who brought with them their 
version of the difficulty of the attempt. On the after- 
noon of Monday, the 24th, just after the successful rescue 
of the French frigate, the settlers saw a man coming 
towards them, shouting at the top of his lungs. The 
chaplain went out to meet him, and the man threw his 
arms around him, crying, "Victory, victory! the harbour 
of the French is ours! " * He proved to be the soldier 
who had guided Menendez by climbing the trees. When 
within a league of St. Augustine he had obtained per- 
mission to run forward and announce the victory. "I 
promised him his reward for the good news and gave 
him the best I could," writes Mendoza, "and having 
learned the news I ran to my house as fast as I could and 

' Fairbanks, History of Florida, Philadelphia, 1871, p. 121. 

^ Mendoza, " Relacion " in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 455-457» 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 91. 

* Mendoza, " Relacion" in ibid.^ tomo ii., pp. 457, 458. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 189 

took a new cassock, the very best I had, and a surplice, 
and I took a crucifix in my hands, and went forward to 
receive Menendez before he reached the door." The 
chaplain was accompanied by the clergy, each carrying a 
cross, and by the women and children, laughing and weep- 
ing with joy, all chanting the Te Deuvi Laudamus^ 

The General was well deserving their homage, for he 
had shown a determination, an intrepidity, and an en- 
durance that had successfully encountered and overcome 
the very forces of nature. In the face of every difficulty, 
the incipient discontent of the soldiers, and an undercur- 
rent of disapproval on the part of his captains, he had 
triumphed in the execution of those plans of his own, to 
which he was so wedded. The chaplain in an exuberance 
of pious joy exclaims: 

" So great is his zeal and Christianity, that all these labours 
are but repose for his mind, for it veritably seems to me that 
no earthly man could have the strength to endure what he has; 
but the fire and longing which possess him to serve our Lord 
in humbling and destroying that Lutheran sect, enemy of our 
old Catholic faith, cause him not to feel the fatigue so greatly. " ' 

On reaching St. Augustine Menendez at once armed 
two boats to send to the mouth of the St. John's after 
Jacques Ribaut, to prevent his uniting with his father 
or returning to France with the news of the Spanish at- 
tack ; but, learning that Jacques had sailed, he abandoned 
his plan and dispatched a single vessel with supplies to 
Fort San Mateo.' 

September 28th some Indians brought to the settle- 

^ Ibid., tomo ii., p. 460; Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 109 ; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 61, 62. 

" Mendoza, " Relacion" in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 461. 

'Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 62; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 109 ; Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 
15. JI565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 87. 



iQO The Spanish Settlements 

ment the information that a number of Frenchmen had 
been cast ashore on an island six leagues from St. 
Augustine,' where they were imprisoned by the river, 
which they could not cross. They proved to be the 
crews of two more of the French fleet which had left Fort 
Caroline September loth. Failing to find the Spaniards 
at sea, Ribaut had not dared to land and attack St. 
Augustine, and so had resolved to return to Fort Caro- 
line, when his vessels were caught in the storm before 
mentioned, the ships dispersed, and two of them wrecked 
along the shore between Matanzas and Mosquito Inlet.* 
Part of the crews had been drowned in attempting to 
land, the Indians had captured fifty of them alive and 
had killed others, so that out of four hundred there re- 
mained only one hundred and forty. Following along 
the shore in the direction of Fort Caroline, the easiest 
and most natural course to pursue, the survivors had 
soon found their further advance barred by the inlet, and 
by the lagoon or "river " to the west of them. 

On receipt of the news Menendez sent Diego Flores in 
advance with forty soldiers to reconnoitre the French 
position; he himself with the chaplain, some ofificers, and 
twenty soldiers rejoined Flores at about midnight, and 
pushed forward to the side of the inlet opposite to their 
encampment. The following morning, having concealed 
his men in the thicket, Menendez dressed himself in a 
French costume with a cape over his shoulder, and, carry- 

' Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 87. Meras (in 
ibid., tomo i,, p. no), and Barrientos (in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de 
la Florida, p. 62), say four leagues. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 88 ; 
Le Challeux, " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la 
Floride, p. 473. Vasalenque (" Informacion de algunos servicios" in 
Ruidi'az, ibid., tomo ii., p. 616) says: " En un rio que se llama Matan9as." 
Gaffarel (p. 222), " sans doute la lagune de Matanzas." Fairbanks (/i^zj/. 
of Florida, p. 121) says : " They were driven ashore between Matanzas and 
Mosquito Inlet." 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 191 

ing a short lance in his hand,' went out and showed him- 
self on the river-bank, accompanied by one of his French 
prisoners, in order to convince the castaways by his bold- 
ness that he was well supported. The Frenchmen soon 
observed him, and one of their number swam over to 
where he was standing. Throwing himself at his feet 
the Frenchman explained who they were and besought 
the General to grant him and his comrades a safe- 
conduct to Fort Caroline, as they were not at war with 
Spaniards. 

" I answered him that we had taken their fort and killed all 
the people in it," writes Menendez to the King, "because 
they had built it there without Your Majesty's permission, and 
were disseminating the Lutheran religion in these, Your Ma- 
jesty's provinces. And that I, as Captain-General of these 
provinces, was waging a war of fire and blood against all 
who came to settle these parts and plant in them their evil 
Lutheran sect; for I was come at Your Majesty's command to 
plant the Gospel in these parts to enlighten the natives in those 
things which the Holy Mother Church of Rome teaches and 
believes, for the salvation of their souls. For this reason I 
would not grant them a safe passage, but would sooner follow 
them by sea and land until I had taken their lives." " 

The Frenchman returned to his companions and re- 
lated his interview. A party of five, consisting of four 
gentlemen and a captain, was next sent over to find what 
terms they could get from Menendez, who received them 
as before, with his soldiers still in ambush, and himself 
attended by only ten persons. After he had convinced 
them of the capture of Fort Caroline by showing them 

' Mendoza (" Relacion " in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 464) says he 
wore a naval dress. Parkman {Pioneers of France in the New World, 
Boston, 1893, p. 134) says in the dress of a French sailor. 

^ Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 89. 



192 The Spanish Settlements 

some of the spoil he had taken, and some prisoners he 
had spared, the spokesman of the company asked for a 
ship and sailors with which to return to France. Men^n- 
dez replied that he would willingly have given them one 
had they been Catholics, and had he any vessels left ; but 
that his own ships had sailed with artillery for Fort San 
Mateo and with the captured women and children for 
Santo Domingo, and a third was retained to carry dis- 
patches to Spain. Neither would he yield to a request 
that their lives be spared until the arrival of a ship, which 
would carry them back to their country. To all of their 
demands he had but one reply to give: "Surrender your 
arms and place yourselves at my mercy, that I may do 
with you as Our Lord may command me." "And from 
this I did not depart, nor will I, unless God Our Lord 
inspire me otherwise," he adds in his letter.' The gentle- 
men carried back to their comrades the terms he had pro- 
posed, and two hours later Ribaut's lieutenant, "a 
very cunning man in these matters," writes Men^ndez, 
returned and offered to surrender their arms and to give 
him five thousand ducats if he would spare their lives. 
Men^ndez indignantly replied that the sum was large 
enough for a poor soldier such as he, if in his heart he 
were capable of such weakness and cupidity, but when 
generosity and mercy were to be shown they should be 
actuated by no interest whatever. Again the envoy re- 
turned to his companions, and in half an hour came the 
acceptance of the ambiguous conditions. 

The story of the attempted bribery, if true, and there 
is little reason to doubt it, but too plainly indicates how 
little room there was for question among those unfor- 
tunate Frenchmen as to the nature of the divine inspira- 
tion in such a foe of France and of heresy as was the cool 
and determined soldier before them. "They came and 
surrendered their arms to me, and I had their hands tied 
' See Appendix O, The Oath of Aviles. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 193 

behind them, and put them all excepting ten to the 
knife," laconically writes this servant of God and the 
King. 

Both of his biographers give a much more detailed ac- 
count of the occurrence, evidently taken from a common 
source. The Frenchmen first sent over in a boat their 
banners, their arquebuses and pistols, swords and tar- 
gets, and some helmets and breast-pieces. Then twenty 
Spaniards crossed in the boat and brought the now un- 
armed Frenchmen over the lagoon in parties of ten. 
They were subjected to no ill-treatment as they were 
ferried over, the Spaniards not wishing to arouse any sus- 
picions among those who had not yet crossed. Menen- 
dez himself withdrew some distance from the shore to the 
rear of a sand hill, where he was concealed from the view 
of the prisoners who were crossing in the boat. In com- 
panies of ten the Frenchmen were conducted to him be- 
hind the sand hill and out of sight of their companions, 
and to each party he addressed the same ominous request : 
"Gentlemen, I have but a few soldiers with me, and you 
are many, and it would be an easy matter for you to over- 
power us and avenge yourselves upon us for your people 
which we killed in the fort ; for this reason it is necessary 
that you should march to my camp four leagues from 
here with your hands tied behind your backs." The 
Frenchmen consented, for they were unarmed and could 
offer no further resistance, and their hands were bound 
behind them with cords of the arquebuses and with the 
matches of the soldiers, probably taken from the very 
arms they had surrendered.' Then Mendoza, the chap- 
lain, "being a priest and having the bowels of a man," 
asked Menendez to grant him the lives of those who 
should prove to be "Christians." Ten Roman Catholics 
were found, who, but for the compassion of this poor 
egotistical and bigoted priest, would have suiifered the 

' Both Barrientos and Meras say 20S Frenchmen were thus tied. 



194 The Spanish Settlements 

last penalty along with the heretics.' These were sent 
by boat to St Augustine. The remainder confessed that 
they were Lutherans. They were given something to 
eat and drink, and then ordered to set out on the march. 
At the distance of a gun-shot from the hill behind which 
these preparations were in progress, Men^ndez himself 
had drawn with his spear a line in the sand, across the 
path they were to follow. Then he ordered the captain 
of the vanguard which escorted the prisoners that on 
reaching the place indicated by the line he was to cut 
off the heads of all of them ; he also commanded the 
captain of the rearguard to do the same. It was Satur- 
day, the 29th of September, the feast of St. Michael, 
patron and prince of the Church militant, conqueror of 
the hosts of hell, out of whose nethermost depths was 
reckoned to have sprung the heresy these French pirates 
had brought with them. The sun had already set, and 
the night was falling when, near the banks of the placid 
lagoon, the Frenchmen came abreast of the mark drawn 
in the sand, and the orders of the Spanish General were 
executed.^ That same night Aviles returned to St. 
Augustine, which he reached at dawn. 

On the loth of October the distressing news reached 
the garrison at St. Augustine that eight days after its 
capture Fort San Mateo had burned down, with the loss 
of all the provisions which were stored there. It was 
accidentally set on fire by the candle of a mulatto servant 
of one of the captains ; but for all that, suspicions arose 
that it might be the result of certain jealousies between 
the master of the mulatto and another officer stationed 

^ Mendoza, " Relacion " in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 465. Else- 
where on the same page he says that 14 or 15 were saved. Aviles in the 
letter already cited (ibid., tomo ii., p. 89), says 10. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 62-66 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 110-117; Mendoza, "Rela- 
cion" in ibid., tomo ii., p. 465 ; Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., 
tomo ii., pp. 87-89. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 195 

there. Menendez promptly sent food from his own store 
to San Mateo.' 

Within an hour of receiving this alarming report some 
Indians brought word that Jean Ribaut with two hun- 
dred men was in the neighbourhood of the place where 
the two French ships had been wrecked. They were in 
much suffering, for the Trinity had gone to pieces farther 
down the shore, and their provisions had all been lost. 
They had been reduced to living on roots and grasses 
and to drinking the impure water collected in the holes 
and pools along their route. Like the first party, whose 
fate has just been related, their only hope lay in a return 
to Fort Caroline. Le Challeux tells us that they had 
saved a small boat from the wreck ; this they caulked with 
their shirts, and thirteen of the company had set out in 
her for Fort Caroline in search of assistance, and had not 
returned.^ As Ribaut and his companions made their 
way northward in the direction of the fort, they eventually 
found themselves in the same predicament as the previous 
party, cut off by Matanzas Inlet and river from the main- 
land, and unable to cross. 

On receipt of the news Avil^s repeated the tactics of 
his previous exploit, and sent a party of soldiers by land, 
following himself the same day in two boats with addi- 
tional troops, one hundred and fifty in all. He reached 
his destination on the shore of the Matanzas River at 
night, ^ and the following morning, October nth, he 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 127 ; Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, 
ibid., tomo ii., pp. loi, io2 ; Vasalenque, " Informacion de algunos ser- 
vicios," etc., in ibid., tomo ii., p. 616. 

^ Le Challeux, " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la 
Floride, p. 474. 

^Vasalenque ("Informacion de algunos servicios," etc., in Ruidiaz, La 
Florida, tomo ii., p. 616) says: " llegados al proprio rio de Matan9as." 
Ribaut must have been wrecked north of Mosquito Inlet in order to reach 
Matanzas. Fairbanks, History of St. Augustine, New York, 1858, p. 64, 
note. On Mexia's map of 1605 (MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Sevilla, 



196 The Spanish Settlements 

discovered the French across the water where they had 
constructed a raft with which to attempt a crossing. At 
the sight of the Spaniards, the French displayed their ban- 
ners, sounded their fifes and drums, and offered them 
battle, but Men^ndez took no notice of the demonstra- 
tion.' Commanding his own men, whom he had again 
disposed to produce an impression of numbers, to sit 
down and breakfast, he turned to walk up and down the 
shore with two of his captains in full sight of the French. 
Then Ribaut called a halt, sounded a trumpet-call, and 
displayed a white flag, to which Men6ndez replied in 
the same fashion. The Spaniards having refused to cross 
at the invitation of Ribaut, a French sailor swam over to 
them, and came back immediately in an Indian canoe, 
bringing the request that Ribaut send over some one 
authorised to state what he wanted. The sailor returned 
again with a French gentleman, who announced that he 
was Sergeant Major of Ribaut, Viceroy and Captain- 
General of Florida for the King of France. His com- 
mander had been wrecked on the coast with three 
hundred and fifty of his people, and had sent to ask for 
boats with which to reach his fort, and to enquire if they 
were Spaniards, and who was their captain. 

"We are Spaniards," answered Avil^s. "I to whom 

Patronato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 1/19, ramo 29), thenameof BarretadeRibaois 
given to an inlet into the Matanzas River south of Matanzas Inlet, which 
appears at that time to have connected it with the sea. Velasco (in his 
Geograffi'a, j^yi-jjy4, p. 167), says the river was called Matanzas " porque 
junto a el, a la parte del norte, en la mesma costa, murieron los franceses 
luteranos que estaban con Juan Ribau." The " Relacion escrita por el 
Tesorero Joan Menendez Marques," June 6, 1606 (in Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo 
ii., 501). mentions "la barra y barrera de Juan Ribao y Matanzas, cinco 
leguas deste puerto [of St. Augustine], en la buelta del Sur , . . y alii 
mataron al dicho Juan Ribao y a la mayor parte de los franceses, de que 
resulto quedar a la barra el nombre de Matan9as." 

' Vasalenque says the Spaniards made a similar demonstration. " In- 
formacion de algunos servicios," etc., in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
616. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 197 

you are speaking am the Captain, and my name is Pedro 
Menendez. Tell your General that I have captured your 
fort, and killed your French there, as well as those who 
had escaped from the wreck of your fleet." And there- 
upon he offered Ribaut the identical terms which he had 
extended to the first party and grimly led the French 
officer to where, a few rods beyond, lay the dead bodies 
of the shipwrecked and defenceless men he had so wan- 
tonly massacred but twelve days before. When the 
Frenchman viewed the heaped-up corpses of his familiars 
and friends, not a muscle quivered in his face, and he 
quietly asked Menendez to send a gentleman to Ribaut 
to inform him of what had occurred ; and he even re- 
quested Menendez to go in person to treat about securi- 
ties, as his General was greatly fatigued. "Go yourself, 
brother, in God's name, to convey my answer; and if your 
General wishes to talk with me, I give him my word that 
he can come in safety with five or six of his companions," 
replied Menendez. 

In the afternoon Ribaut crossed over with eight gentle- 
men and was entertained by Aviles. The French accepted 
some wine and preserves ; more they would not take, for 
their hearts were heavy at learning the fate of their com- 
panions. Then Ribaut, pointing to where lay the bodies 
of his comrades, which were visible from where he stood, 
said that they might have been tricked into the belief that 
Fort Caroline was taken, referring to a story he had 
learned from a barber who had survived the first massacre 
by feigning death when he was struck down, and had then 
escaped to him. But Ribaut was soon convinced of his 
mistake, for he was allowed to converse privately with 
two Frenchmen captured at Fort Caroline. Then he 
turned to Menendez and said : ' ' What has happened to me 
may happen to you. Since our Kings are brothers and 
friends, do you also play the part of a friend and give me 
ships with which to return to France. ' ' But the Spaniard 



198 The Spanish Settlements 

was inexorable, and Ribaut returned to his compan- 
ions to acquaint them with the results of the interview. 
Within three hours he was back again. Some of his 
people were willing to trust to the mercy of Men^ndez, 
he said, but others were not, and he offered one hundred 
thousand ducats on the part of his companions to secure 
their lives ' ; but Avil^s stood firm in his determination. 
As the evening was falling Ribaut again withdrew across 
the lagoon, saying he would bring the final decision in 
the morning. 

Between the terrible alternatives of death by starvation 
or at the hands of the Spaniards, the night brought no 
better counsel to the castaways than that of trusting to 
the mercy of their fellow-men. When morning came 
Ribaut returned with six of his captains, and surrendered 
his own person and arms, the royal standard which he 
bore, and his seal of office. His captains did the same, 
and Ribaut declared that about seventy of his people 
were willing to submit, among whom were many noble- 
men, gentlemen of high connections, and four Germans. 
The remainder of the company had withdrawn and had 
even attempted to kill their leader. Then the same 
gruesome ceremony was rehearsed as on the previous 
occasion. Diego Flores de Valdes ferried the French- 
men over in parties of ten, which were successively con- 
ducted behind the same sand hill, where their hands were 
tied behind them. The same lying excuse was made 
that they could not be trusted to march unbound to the 
camp. When the hands of all had been bound except 
those of Ribaut, who was for a time left free, the ominous 
question was put: "Are you Catholics or Lutherans, and 
are there any who wish to confess?" Ribaut answered 
that they were all of the new Lutheran religion. Then 
he repeated the passage from Genesis, "From earth we 

' See also the deposition of Grauiel de Riuera in " Informacion de algunos 
servicios," etc., in ibid., tomo ii., p. 603, to the same effect. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 199 

come, and unto earth must we return " *; and observed 
that twenty years more or less were of little account ; 
that Men^ndez could do with them as he chose, and he 
sang the psalm Domine, memetito mei.^ Avil^s pardoned 
the drummers, fifers, trumpeters, and four others who 
said they were Catholics, some seventeen in all.' Then 
he ordered that the remainder should be marched in the 
same order to the same line in the sand, where they were 
in turn deliberately massacred. 

Aviles had confided Ribaut to his brother-in-law, and 
biographer, Solis de Meras, and to San Vincente, with 
directions to kill him. Ribaut was wearing a felt hat and 
on Vincente's asking for it Ribaut gave it to him. Then 
the Spaniard said: "You know how captains must obey 
their generals and execute their commands. We must 
bind your hands." When this had been done and the 
three had proceeded a little distance along the way, Vin- 
cente gave him a blow in the stomach with his dagger, 
and Meras thrust him through the breast with a pike 
which he carried, and then they cut off his head.* 

' Probably Genesis iii., 19. 

'Meras, who relates the incident (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 126), 
says: " empezo a decir el %2\m.o Dotnine, 7?iemento tnei." As Meras was 
one of his murderers the statement must be accepted. But there is no 
psalm beginning with these words. Parkman {Pioneers of France in the 
New World, Boston, 1893, p. 143) quotes from Histoire G^n^rale des Voy- 
ages, xiv., p. 446, where it is suggested that Meras probably intended to 
say Domine, memeftto David, which is Psalm 131 of the Vulgate and 132 of 
the King James Version, and the quotation further suggests that Ribaut re- 
peated it in French. But it is difficult to see what particular bearing the 
132nd Psalm could have on the circumstances attending his assassination, 
except, perhaps, a very obscure reference to his planting of the Reformed 
religion in the New World. 

' This is the number given by Barrientos (" Hechos," in Garcia, Dos 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 6g); Meras (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
i. , p. 126) says the pipers, drummers, and trumpeters, with four Catholics, six- 
teen in all. Aviles himself (letter Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii,, p. 103) says 
five only, two lads of eighteen years of age, a piper, drummer, and trumpeter, 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 66-70 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 119-126 ; Aviles to Philip II,, 



200 The Spanish Settlements 

"I put Jean Ribaut and all the rest of them to the knife," 
Aviles wrote Philip four days later, "judging it to be neces- 
sary to the service of the Lord Our God, and of Your Majesty. 
And I think it a very great fortune that this man be dead; for 
the King of France could accomplish more with him and fifty 
thousand ducats, than with other men and five hundred thou- 
sand ducats; and he could do more in one year, than another 
in ten; for he was the most experienced sailor and corsair 
known, very skilful in this navigation of the Indies and of the 
Florida Coast." ^ 

There was one remarkable escape from this massacre, 
that of a sailor from Dieppe, whose name has been omit- 
ted from the records. According to his own account, as 
related by Le Moyne, 

"he was among those who were pinioned for slaughter, and 
was knocked in the head with the rest, but, instead of being 
killed, was only stunned; and the three others with whom he 
was tied falling above him, he was left for dead along with 
them. The Spaniards got together a great pile of wood to 
burn the corpses; but, as it grew late, they put it off until the 
next day. The sailor, coming to his senses among the dead 
bodies in the night, bethought himself of a knife which he 
wore in a wooden sheath, and contrived to work himself about 
until little by little he got the knife out and cut the ropes that 
bound him. He then rose up and silently departed, journey- 
ing all the rest of the night. After travelling three days with- 
out stopping, he came to a certain Indian chief, . . . with 

Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 102, 103. Le Challeux in " Histoire 
Memorable" (reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Florida, p. 476) says he was 
first stabbed from behind, as does also the " Requeste au Roy" {ibid., p. 
478). There is a curious confirmation of the conversation between Ribaut 
and one of his murderers in the story of the Dieppe sailor reported by Le 
Moyne (De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 29). See p. 203 in this volume. 
Fourquevaux, in his letter to Charles IX., of Aug. il, 1566 {D^peches, 
p. 104), says : " Tout le demeurant fut incontinent mis en pieces jusques au 
nombre de 873 " ! 

' Aviles to Philip IL, Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida tomo ii., p. 103. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 20 r 

whom he remained hidden eight months before he was be- 
trayed to the Spaniards." ' 

After serving as a slave for a year in the fort at St. 
Augustine, and then being sent to Cuba, where he was 
chained to another Frenchman, the two unfortunates were 
finally sold together and put on board a ship bound for 
Portugal. On her way she was captured by a French 
vessel, and the two Frenchmen, still in chains, finally 
obtained their liberty. 

The Dieppe sailor gave his own account of the final 
massacre of the French to Le Moyne, and as it is a type 
of the version which was generally accepted and believed 
in by the French it deserves our consideration. Follow- 
ing his shipwreck Ribaut determined to make for Fort 
Caroline, and after enduring many hardships he finally 
reached a point in its neighbourhood, as the sailor sup- 
posed, but really at Matanzas Inlet. Here he encamped, 
and sending one Vasseur with six men in an Indian canoe 
to reconnoitre, they presently returned with the distress- 
ing information that the Spanish flag was floating above 
Fort Caroline." Ribaut at once recognised how desperate 
was his situation, with his men in danger of perishing by 
starvation and exposure, and sent two of his officers to 
sound the Spaniards, who the narrator supposed were 
at Fort Caroline, across the river. 

■ De Bry, Brevis Narratio, p. 29 ; English translation of Fred. B. Per- 
kins in Narrative of Le Moyne, Boston, 1875, p. 22. Barcia {Ensayo, Afio 
MDLXVII., pp. 129, 130, 135) relates a similar story of an escaped French- 
man named Pedro Breu, subsequently taken by Aviles, and not recounted 
by Meras or Barrientos. 

^ See Le Challeux's similiar statement that Ribaut sent a reconnoissance 
to Fort Caroline, " Histoire Memorable," reprint in Gaflarel, Hist, de la 
Floride, p. 474 and p. 195, in this volume. Barcia {Ensayo, Ano MDLXV., 
p. 84) says the party did not return to Ribaut, but escaped to Crista or 
Santa Elena on finding that Fort Caroline had fallen. He appears to iden- 
tify the party with the Frenchmen heard of by Aviles on his first visit to 
Guale. See p. 245 in this volume. 



202 The Spanish Settlements 

" They went in a canoe with five or six soldiers, and, accord- 
ing to orders, showed themselves a good distance off. The 
Spaniards on seeing them, came in a boat to the other bank of 
the river, and held a parley with our men. The French asked 
what had become of the men left in the Fort? The Spaniards 
replied that their commander, who was a humane and clement 
person, had sent them all to France in a large ship abundantly 
supplied, and that they might say to Ribaut that he and his 
men should be used equally well." 

The French returned with this message, to which Ribaut 
too hastily gave credence. Urged on by the majority of 
his men to secure terms of surrender, although there were 
some who questioned its wisdom, he sent La Caille to the 
Spanish commander, with the orders that 

" if the latter should seem inclined to clemency, to ask in the 
name of the Lieutenant of the King of France, for a safe-con- 
duct, and to announce, that, if the Spanish leader would make 
oath to spare all their lives, they would come in and throw 
themselves at his feet. . . . Coming to the fort he [La 
Caille] was taken before the Commander, and, throwing him- 
self at his feet, delivered his message. Having heard La Caille 
through, he not only pledged his faith to La Caille in the terms 
suggested, and confirmed the pledge with many signs of the 
cross, and by kissing the Evangelists, but made oath in the 
presence of all his men, and drew up a writing sealed with his 
seal, repeating the oath, and promising that he would without 
fraud, faithfully, and like a gentleman and a man of honesty, 
preserve the lives of Ribaud and his men. All of this was 
handsomely written out, and given to La Caille." 

The assurance thus solemnly given 

" was joyfully received by some, while others did not entertain 
any great expectations from it. Ribaud, however, having 
made an excellent speech to his people, and all having joined 
in offering prayer to God, gave orders to proceed, and with 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 203 

all his company came down to the bank of the river near the 
fort. Upon being seen by the Spanish sentinels, they were 
taken over in boats. Ribaud himself, and D'Ottigny, Lau- 
donniere's Lieutenant, were first led into the fort by them- 
selves; the rest were halted about a bowshot from the fort, 
and all were tied up in fours back to back; from which, and 
other indications, they quickly perceived that their lives were 
lost. Ribaud asked to see the Governor, to remind him of his 
promise; but he spoke to deaf ears. D'Ottigny, hearing the 
despairing cries of his men, appealed to the oath which had 
been taken, but they laughed at him. As Ribaud insisted on 
his application, a Spanish soldier finally came in, and asked 
in French if he were the commander, Ribaud. The answer 
was ' Yes.' The man asked again if Ribaud did not expect, 
when he gave an order to his soldiers, that they would obey ; 
to which he again said ' Yes.' ' I propose to obey the orders 
of my commander also, ' replied the Spaniard ; ' I am ordered 
to kill you,' and with that he thrust a dagger into his breast; 
and he killed D'Ottigny in the same way. When this was 
done, men were detailed to kill all the rest who had been tied 
up, by knocking them in the head with clubs and axes; which 
they proceeded to do without delay, calling them meanwhile 
Lutherans, and enemies to God and the Virgin Mary. In this 
manner they were all most cruelly murdered in violation of an 
oath, except a drummer from Dieppe named Dronet, a fifer, 
[the narrator], and a fiddler named Masselin, who was kept 
alive to play for dancing. ' ' ' 

That same night Aviles returned to St. Augustine ; and 
when the event became known, there were some, even in 
that isolated garrison, living in constant dread of a de- 
scent by the French, who accounted him cruel, an opin- 
ion which his brother-in-law, Meras, the very man who 
helped to kill Ribaut, does not hesitate to record. And 
when the news eventually reached Spain, even there a 
vague rumour was afloat that there were those who 

' Le Moyne in Brevis Narratio, pp. 27-29 ; English translation of Fred. 
B. Perkins in Narrative of Le Moyne, pp. 20-22. 



204 The Spanish Settlements 

condemned Aviles for perpetrating the massacre against 
his given word.' Others among the settlers thought that 
he had acted as a good captain, because, with their small 
store of provisions, they considered that there would have 
been an imminent danger of their perishing by hunger had 
their numbers been increased by the Frenchmen, even 
had they been Catholics.^ Don Bartolome Barrientos, 
Professor at the University of Salamanca, whose history 
was completed two years after the event, expresses still 
another phase of Spanish contemporary opinion: 

" He acted as an excellent inquisitor; for when asked if they 
were Catholics or Lutherans, they dared to proclaim them- 
selves publicly as Lutherans, without fear of God or shame 
before men ; and thus he gave them that death which their in- 
solence deserved. And even in that he was very merciful in 
granting them a noble and honourable death, by cutting off 
their heads, when he could legally have burnt them alive. 
He killed them, I think, rather by divine inspiration, 
than through any counsel of the human understanding, for he 
had no wish that his own people by touching pitch, should be 
defiled by it." ' 

Another curious side light upon the aspect in which 
these massacres presented themselves to those who were 
in frequent and long continued intercourse with Menen- 
dez, is furnished by an enquiry into his service to the 
King, accompanying a request for relief made in 1595, 
and addressed to the Crown by one of his sons-in-law. 
Five out of seven of the deponents in the enquiry men- 
tion Aviles's conquest of Florida and add in the most 
matter-of-fact way that he killed all of the French there. 
The striking feature in the statements is the entire ab- 

' Fourquevaux to Charles IX., July 5, 1566, D^peches, p. 94. 
'^ Meras in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo i., p. 127 ; Barrientos in Garcia. 
Dos Atttiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 70. 

* " Heches " in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 72. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 205 

sence of all sectarian bitterness, and the evident inference 
that the killing was an action to be recorded to his credit 
along with the conquest of the country.' 

The motives which prompted Aviles in these deeds of 
blood must not be too rashly attributed exclusively to 
religious fanaticism, or to race hatred. The position 
subsequently taken by the Spanish Government in its 
relations with France to justify the crime turned on the 
large number of the French and the fewness of the Span- 
iards ; the scarcity of provisions, and the absence of ships 
with which to transport them as prisoners. These rea- 
sons do not appear in the brief accounts contained in 
Menendez's letter of October 15, 1565, but some of them 
are explicitly stated by Barrientos, and even Mr. Park- 
man ■ feels constrained to admit the danger to which the 
Spaniards would have been exposed by the preponderance 
in numbers of the French had they been spared. It is 
quite probable that Men^ndez clearly perceived the great 
risk he would run in granting the Frenchmen their lives 
and in retaining so large a body of prisoners in the midst 
of his colonists ; that it would be a severe strain upon his 
supply of provisions and seriously hamper the dividing 
up of his troops into small garrisons for the forts which 
he contemplated erecting at different points along the 
coast. In arriving at his sanguinary solution of the dififi- 
culty, he probably thanked God that they were "Luther- 
ans," and that in fulfilling the counsels of prudence he 
could also execute the divine will upon heretics.' 

'See " Informacion de algunos servicios prestados por el Adelantado X 
Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Mexico, 3 de Abril de 1595," in Ruidiaz, La 
Florida, tomo ii., p. 590. Testimony of Sebastian de Arguelles, pp. 594, 
598 ; of Grauiel de Riuera, pp. 601, 603 ; of Augustin Espinola, pp. 607, 
608; of Gonzalo Menendez de Valdes, pp. 611, 612; of Antonio Garcia 
Vasalenque, pp. 614-617. 

^ Pioneers of France in the New World, Boston, 1S93, p. 150. 

^ See Appendix Q, The Situation of Aviles at the Time of the Massacre, 
In connection with these massacres by Menendez Professor E. G. Bourne 



2o6 The Spanish Settlements 

Philip's comment on the event was characteristic. On 
the back of a dispatch from Aviles in Havana, of October 
12, 1565, there appears in his well-known handwriting: 
"As to those he has killed he has done well, and as to 
those he has saved, they shall be sent to the galleys." 
In the letter of May 12, 1566, written in accordance with 
these instructions, and conveying Philip's approval, he 
said : 



"And as for the judgment you have executed upon the 
Lutheran corsairs, who have sought to occupy and fortify that 
country, to sow in it their evil sect, and to continue from there 
the robberies and injuries which they have committed and are 
still committing, wholly contrary to the service of God and of 
me, we believe that you have acted with entire justification 
and prudence, and we hold that we have been well served." * 

In his official utterances in justification of the massacre 
Philip laid perhaps a greater stress upon the contamina- 
tion which heresy might have wrought among the natives 
than upon the invasion of his dominions. But in con- 
sidering the various motives which may have prompted 
his approval of the ghastly massacre, one should not 
forget that when, seventeen years later, measures were 
under way in England for the sending of a Roman Catho- 
lic colony to Florida, Philip's ambassador, Mendoza, in- 
formed the leaders that in the event of such an undertaking 

in his " Spain in America" {^The American Nation^ A History, vol. iii., p. 
186), very appositely calls attention to the massacre of the English at Am- 
boyna by the Dutch in 1623, and to Cromwell's massacre of the Irish at 
Drogheda in 1649. Cromwell, who in his own words believed himself to 
be executing the " righteous judgement of God," relates in his dispatch that 
" when they submitted, their officers were knocked on the head [and], every 
tenth man of the soldiers killed." 

' Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, Boston, 1S93, p. 150; 
Philip II. to Aviles, May 12, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tonio ii., p. 362. 
The letter is also given in Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXVI., p. 116. 



The Fate of Ribaut's Fleet 207 

"they would at once have their heads cut off, as was done 
to the French, who went with Jean Ribaut." ' 

On his return to St. Augustine Avil^s wrote to the 
King a somewhat cursory account of the preceding events 
and summarised the results in the following language: 

" The other people with Ribaut, some seventy or eighty in all, 
took to the forest, refusing to surrender unless I grant them 
their lives. These and twenty others who escaped from the 
fort, and fifty who were captured by the Indians, from the 
ships which were wrecked, in all one hundred and fifty per- 
sons, rather less than more, are [all] the French alive to-day 
in Florida, dispersed and flying through the forest, and captive 
with the Indians. And since they are Lutherans and in order 
that so evil a sect shall not remain alive in these parts, I will 
conduct myself in such wise, and will so incite my friends, the 
Indians, on their part, that in five or six weeks very few if any 
will remain alive. And of a thousand French with an armada 
of twelve sail who had landed when I reached these provinces, 
only two vessels have escaped, and those very miserable ones, 
with some forty or fifty persons in them." ^ 

And so it was that Avil^s purged Florida of the French 
and of heres}/'. 

' " Copia de carta descifrada de Don Bernardino de Mendoza, Londres 
a II de Julio de 1582," Correspondencia de Felipe II., etc., tomo v., p. 397. 
English translation in Spanish State Papers, 1580-1586, III., Elizabeth, p. 

349- 

"Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, '^■^x^iz.z. La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
103. 



BOOK II 
THE SPANISH COLONY 



209 



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1562-1574 

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BOOK II 
THE SPANISH COLONY 



CHAPTER I 

THE AYS EXPEDITION. AVILES AT HAVANA 

FOR the moment the cool judgment of Aviles seemed 
ahnost carried away by his success, and he dreamed 
dreams of extending the empire of his master over the 
entire northern continent. In the same letter which 
conveyed the announcement of the two massacres, he 
wrote Philip 11. : 

" Considering these lands to be of so great an extent and 
the climate so good, and the injury and disturbance which 
enemies and corsairs can cause them every day, and how they 
can possess themselves of the countries to the North of here, 
near Newfoundland, where they are masters by violence, and 
can easily maintain themselves, the following is what should 
be done in every particular." ' 

First of all, he proposed to run down the coast of the 
peninsula and visit the Florida Keys in search of a suit- 
able harbour where he could construct a fort to protect 
the seaboard from enterprises such as he had attributed to 

' Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 93, 

2n 



212 The Spanish Settlements 

Ribaut in conjunction with the English/ Having garri- 
soned it with reinforcements from Havana, he expected 
to be back at St. Augustine and San Mateo by the be- 
ginning of April. He then proposed to ascend the coast 
as far as Chesapeake Bay, which he called the Bay of 
Santa Maria in 37°, constructing a fort there and another 
at Santa Elena. 

He had formed a notion that an arm of the sea ex- 
tended in a south-westerly direction from Newfoundland 
and terminated at the foot of a range of mountains eighty 
leagues inland to the north of the Chesapeake, and that 
one of the north-western branches of the bay, possibly 
the Potomac, was the much-sought-for passage to the 
Pacific. For this reason he dwelt upon the great im- 
portance of controlling the bay, which in his mind not 
only defended the approach to Mexico, but also com- 
manded the pathway of commerce with China and the 
Moluccas.* Prudential reasons also entered into this 
part of his plan, and he was in haste to put it into effect 
for fear of the return of Jacques Ribaut the following 
year." He also proposed to establish a fort and garrison 
in the Bay of Juan Ponce which he vaguely confounded 
with Appalachee Bay, and to found a settlement at Co^a 
in 38° or 39° "at the foot of the mountains which come 

' See p. 96 in this volume. 

* It is difficult to understand from Menendez's letter what was the par- 
ticular conformation he attributed to North America. Possibly he enter- 
tained the idea that it tapered to a narrow neck in the vicinity of Chesapeake 
Bay, connecting the more northerly portion with a somewhat similar exten- 
sion of the continent to the south, such as we see in the Vesconte Maiollo 
map of 1527, and in the Novcb Insulce of Ptolemy's Geographia Universalis 
of 1540. " It seems clear," writes Mr. Parkman, " that Menendez believed 
that Chesapeake Bay communicated with the St. Lawrence, and thence with 
Newfoundland on the one hand, and the South Sea on the other " {Pioneers 
of France in the Neio World, p. 149, note). 

^ Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
93-95, 100, 101 ; Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 121 ; Dec. 25, \^t^,ibid., 
tomo ii., pp. 131, 132. 



The Ays Expedition 213 

from the mines of Zacatecas and San Martin," on account 
of its advantageous situation on the way to these mines.' 
He pictured to the King the many and great profits 
that would accrue to Spain from the abundant wine of 
the country, the sugar plantations, the herds of cattle, 
the pitch and tar and ship timber, the salt and wheat, the 
fruits and waters, the quantities of rice and pearls, and 
even the silk from the interior, until, carried away by 
the vision he had himself conjured into existence, he 
exclaimed : 

" And I assure Your Majesty that in the future Florida will 
be of little expense, and will pay Your Majesty much money, 
and will be of more value to Spain than New Spain or even 
Peru, and it may be said that this country is but a suburb of 
Spain, for it does not take more than forty days' sailing to 
come here, and usually as many more to return." " 

It was an alluring picture which Avil^s had drawn for his 
master's eye, and intended perhaps rather to arouse the 
cupidity of his sovereign and induce him to assist the 
enterprise in a more liberal spirit than he had as yet 
shown than due to any illusions lurking in the hard head 
of the Adelantado. This rhapsody was interrupted by 
the two massacres and the burning of San Mateo, only 
to be resumed again, and it was sent to Spain by the hand 
of Diego Flores de Valdes, who probably arrived there 
in December.'' 

But more immediate considerations were pressing hard 

' Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 98, 99 ; Dec. 25, 
1565, ibid.y tomo ii., p. 133, 

'Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 99, 104. In his 
letter of Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 121, he says 40 or 50 days from 
Spain to Florida. 

2 Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. loi. Diego 
Flores de Valdes was expected to arrive in Spain by the end of November 
(same to same, Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., p. 105). He was certainly there by 
February, 1566, see Philip II. to Alava, Feb. 23, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., 
Paris, K, 1505 (75), fol. 2. 



214 The Spanish Settlements 

upon Aviles. Shortly after his arrival he had informed 
the King that his supply of biscuit could be made to last 
him through January,' and the capture of Fort Caroline 
had greatly increased his store of meal ; but a month later 
he found that the biscuit he had brought with him was 
already spoiling. Although many of the soldiers volun- 
tarily decreased the amount of their rations,'' the de- 
terioration of the bread, coupled with the burning of the 
fort, was rapidly reducing his colony to such straits, 
that he informed Philip "unless we are succoured very 
shortly we shall be in actual need, and many will depart 
this world from starvation." ' 

Three weeks had barely passed since the final massacre 
when word was brought by the Indians that the seventy 
or eighty Frenchmen belonging to Ribaut's company, 
who had refused to surrender, were constructing a fort 
thirty leagues distant from St. Augustine in the neigh- 
bourhood of Cape Canaveral, where the Trinity had been 
wrecked, and were also building a vessel which they in- 
tended to send to France for succour. Again Menendez 
determined to act promptly. He sent to San Mateo 
for reinforcements, and while awaiting their arrival he 
appointed his brother Bartolome Governor of St. Augus- 
tine, directed the number of hours that should be spent 
each day upon the fortifications which he had marked out, 
the proper distribution of the work among the troops, and 
provided for the criminal jurisdiction among his colonists. 

On the 23rd of August his reinforcements arrived from 
San Mateo, and November 2nd ^ he set out for the fort of 
the French. He embarked a force of one hundred men 

' Aviles to Philip II., Sept. ii, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. yg. 

* Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 178. 

3 Aviles to Philip II., Oct. 15, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 104. Barrientos 
in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 74. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomoii., p. 106 ; 
Barrientos (in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 75) and 
Meras (Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo i., p. 129) say he started August 26th. 



The Ays Expedition 215 

aboard of three light boats which he furnished with pro- 
visions for forty days, while he himself marched by land 
at the head of one hundred and fifty more, guided by the 
Indians. At night the men in the boats landed and the 
entire force encamped together. On November 4th/ All 
Saints' Day, at dawn, the Spaniards came upon the fort, 
approaching it by water as well as by land, but the 
French discovered them in time to abandon it and escape 
into the forest. The Spaniards secured six guns, which 
had been saved from the wreck of the Trinity, some 
powder, and, best of all, some provisions, for the soldiers 
had been put upon half rations on setting out from St. 
Augustine. Avil^s caused the boat to be burnt, as well as 
the fort, which was constructed of wood, buried the guns, 
which were too heavy to transport in his boats, and sent a 
French trumpeter, whose life he had spared, to summon the 
fugitives to surrender, promising to grant them their lives. 
The poor shipwrecked Frenchmen, pushed to the last 
extremity, with no other alternative before them but 
captivity and death at the hands of the savages, notwith- 
standing the fate which had befallen their comrades, 
trusted themselves to the promises of the General, and 
came in, laying down their arms. Their captain alone, 
with three or four others, refused to yield, sending word 
that they preferred to be devoured by the Indians rather 
than to surrender to Spaniards. Then followed a curious 
illustration of the character of the man with whom they 
had to deal. Aviles received the prisoners, who proved 
to be from Navarre, servants of the Prince of Conde, 
with great kindness. He seated the noblemen at his own 
table and gave them clothing, while the sailors messed 
with his sailors and the soldiers with his soldiers." The 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 76. 

'•'Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
105, 106 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 128-131 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 73-75. 



2i6 The Spanish Settlements 

same afternoon he continued fifteen leagues along the 
coast to the south of the village of the Ays Indians, 
situated on Indian River between the St. Sebastian River 
and Indian Inlet, possibly at that time on the northern 
end of Hutchinson's Island south of the inlet/ 

It was an arduous march, but "the Spanish Nation," 
says Barrientos, "is like sorrel horses, who though lean 
and famished show mettle until they fall in their tracks." ' 
The rations were now reduced to half a pound of bread 
daily, one-third of the usual allowance, which the seventy 
Frenchmen shared equally with the Spaniards. This 
scanty fare was eked out with the hearts of the pal- 
mettos, prickly pears, and cocoa-plums. The start was 
made at two o'clock in the morning and the march con- 
tinued until daybreak, when a halt was called, and the 
meagre breakfast was eaten. Two hours later the march 
began again and continued until sunset, with another 
interval of rest from half-past eleven or twelve until two. 
The sand was frequent and heavy and the sun hot. Avil6s 
led the vanguard with eight of the strongest of his com- 
pany. But the men, weary and hungry, lagged behind, 
and one of the soldiers who had been among the first to 
enter Fort Caroline when the assault was given, died from 
sheer exhaustion. The boats went around to seek the 
mouth of the inlet. 

The Ays chief received the Spaniards with much kind- 
ness, kissing them on the mouth, which says Barrientos, 
was their greatest sign of friendship. His face was deco- 
rated with various colours, and he as well as all of his 
chief men wore frontlets of gold, probably obtained from 
the vessels wrecked along the coast. Men6ndez ordered 
his men to respect the property of the natives, and pre- 
sented them with little gifts of knives and mirrors and 

' See Appendix R, Ays. 

* " Vida y Hechos," in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 
76. 



The Ays Expedition 217 

scissors. The Spaniards remained four days at Ays, and 
Avil^s went down the lagoon to look for a suitable place 
to settle, but failed to find one. The provisions of the 
explorers had now become so reduced that starvation 
was pressing upon them, and the General determined to 
go in person to Havana to seek succour for his various 
settlements. Before his departure he encamped two 
hundred of his party under Juan Velez de Medrano at a 
place on the lagoon three leagues distant from Ays, where 
there was abundance of fish, in order to remove his men 
from the neighbourhood of the Indian village and thus 
avoid the possibility of any conflict between them and 
the natives during his absence, and he left them supplies 
for fifteen days.' 

In the latter part of the month he set sail for Havana 
in his two open boats with fifty men and twenty of the 
French prisoners.'* It was a bold and dangerous under- 
taking. Impelled only by the wind and by oars in the 
hands of weary and famishing men, he had to stem the 
swift-flowing currents of the Gulf Stream, which reaches 
its greatest velocity in this neighbourhood. He had ob- 
served in his previous journeys the existence of back cur- 
rents along the Florida shore,' and availing himself of 
these he followed down the coast, discovering on his way 
the two inlets at Gilbert's Bar and Jupiter, and in three 
days reached Cuba. During the crossing a storm arose, 
and Avil^s shared the tiller with one of the Frenchmen. 
On leaving Ays his compass had been broken, and, 

1 Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
106, 107 ; Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 132-136 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 76, 78. 

2 Both Barrientos (in ibid., p. 78) and Meras (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
i., p. 130) say 20 Frenchmen. Aviles does not refer to them in his letter 
of Dec. 5, 1565, but in his letter to Philip II., of Jan. 30, 1566 (ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 143) he also says 70 men in all. 

3 Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii,, 
p. 107. 



2i8 The Spanish Settlements 

missing Havana during the night, he made the harbour of 
Bayahonda, fifteen leagues beyond. 

On landing, the entire company kneeled down to render 
thanks for their deliverance, and then Avil^s 

" called the Frenchmen and charged them to behold the power 
and the goodness of God, and if they were Lutherans to repent 
and turn Catholics; and [he observed] that whatever their re- 
ligion might be, he was bound to treat them well because they 
had surrendered on his word: and that he would give them 
liberty to return to France in the first ships leaving for Spain: 
that he told them this because of his desire that they should 
save themselves. There were some of them," continues Bar- 
rientos, " who weeping, beat their breasts beseeching Our Lord 
for mercy; and said that they had been bad Christians and 
Lutherans, and that they had repented, and from then on 
would abandon their evil sect, would confess themselves and 
commune, for they wished to keep that [faith] which the Holy 
Mother Church of Rome held and beUeved. The Adelan- 
tado gave them all presents and bade them not to trouble 
about their work, and that he would care for them as if they 
were his brothers." * 

Re-embarking, Avil6s shortly reached Havana, where he 
was joyfully received by Diego de Amaya, the com- 
mander of the second boat, who had arrived two days be- 
fore him, and had given him up for lost. He found there 
Pedro Men^ndez Marques, with two hundred men and 
three vessels of the Asturian fleet, from which Marques 
had become separated in a storm," 

The squadron which had been fitted out in Biscay and 
the Asturias to join Avil^s at the Canaries consisted of 

1 Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 80; 
Meras (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 138) tells the same story in identi- 
cally the same language. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 108; 
Meras in i/^?V., tomo i., p. 137; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Re- 
laciones de la Florida, p. 80. 



The Ays Expedition 219 

three vessels from the seaport of Avil^s with two hundred 
and fifty-seven soldiers and sailors, and two additional 
ships from Gijon with seventy-eight persons, among 
which were eleven Franciscan friars and one lay brother, 
a friar of the Order of Mercy, a priest, and eight Jesuits.' 
Esteban de las Alas, who three years before had com- 
manded the fleet arriving from New Spain, ^ went as 
General, and Pedro Menendez Marques, nephew of the 
Adelantado, was Admiral. So eager was the adventur- 
ous population in that country of seamen to embark in 
the enterprise, its zeal fired by the report that the 
heretics were to be driven out of the King's dominions, 
that a number of vessels from Santander and other ports 
along the coast had joined it, and it was not found neces- 
sary to take out the licence for the five hundred negro 
slaves.^ 

The fleet set sail about the end of May and, on 
reaching the Canaries, found that Aviles had already left. 
During the passage many of the accompanying vessels 
appear to have put back, or to have been lost on account 
of stormy weather." But Las Alas continued the journey 
with the five ships and appears to have touched at Puerto 
Rico. On his way to Santo Domingo, in pursuance of 
the orders he had found awaiting him at the Canaries, he 
captured off the northern end of Hispaniola two Portu- 
guese prizes,^ of which Las Alas secured the one of least 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 63 ; Barcia {Ensayo, Ano 
MDLXV., p. 69) merely copies from Meras. 

"^ Duro, Armada Espanola, tomo i., p. 465. 

3 Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 63 ; Barrientos in Garcia, 
Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 35 ; Barcia {Ensayo, Ano 
MDLXV., p. 69) merely copies from Meras. 

* Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 63. 

^ As typical of the atrocities to which seafaring men were exposed in those 
days Aviles writes the King that he had set these Portuguese to row the 
boats, although all of the Spaniards whom the Portuguese captured in the 
Moluccas were sewed up in the sails and thrown alive into the sea. Letter 
of Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 112. 



220 The Spanish Settlements 

value and Marques the other. Before reaching Santo 
Domingo a storm separated them, and Marques proceeded 
to Havana with his prize, where, as already related, Me- 
nendez found him.' 

When Avil^s entered the harbour of Havana, his arrival 
had been announced to the governor, Garcia Osorio. His 
own vessels had hailed him with salvos of artillery and 
the blowing of trumpets. Osorio also came down to the 
quay to receive him, with a drummer and piper and an 
escort flying a flag and bearing torches, but he did not 
remain. His treasurer, Juan de Hinestrosa, however, 
welcomed the General and conducted him and his people 
to his own house, where they were entertained with great 
hospitality. It was an unpropitious star for the Florida 
colony which had brought the Adelantado to Havana at 
this moment, for the Governor had just committed a very 
arbitrary and high-handed offence against Juan de la 
Parra, a captain of the fleet of New Spain, subject to the 
orders of Avil^s. Some three months before. La Parra, 
while on his way to Havana, had captured a Portuguese 
prize. Within an hour of his arrival the Governor had 
forcibly seized it, mutilating the pilot in charge, to which 
La Parra had quietly submitted; but as the latter had 
been unable to withhold some expressions of anger at the 
unwarrantable proceeding, Osorio had also seized him and 
confined him in a dark prison, where he had been lan- 
guishing for three months, chained to the walls of his 
dungeon. All of this Aviles learned from Hinestrosa, 
who had also warned him that the Governor had for- 
bidden the subject to be broached. 

The day following his arrival Aviles met the Governor 
on leaving church after mass, and later in the day called 
on him, informed him of the straits to which his Florida 
colony was reduced, and exhibited his two royal c^dulas* 

* Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. in. 
'Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 150. 



The Ays Expedition 221 

-which ordered Osorio to furnish him with a vessel, five 
hundred soldiers, and twenty horses for the conquest of 
the country. The General modestly stated that he did 
not require the ship and soldiers called for by the royal 
c^dulas and would be content with one-fifth of the amount 
which the armament would cost. As an alternative, in 
case Osorio was unwilling to lend this sum, he asked for 
the proceeds of the sale of the Portuguese prize, amount- 
ing to some ten or eleven thousand ducats ; added that 
even four thousand ducats would be sufficient, which he 
also offered to secure, and ended by asking Osorio to sur- 
render La Parra to his jurisdiction. At this the Gov- 
ernor became enraged, and flatly refused to give up the 
man or loan the money.' 

It was a serious situation for the anxious Adelantado, 
for Cuba was the centre to which his ships were con- 
stantly plying in search of supplies for his Florida colony ; 
and he feared the treatment to which his captains and 
officials would be exposed at the hands of one who could 
be so arbitrary with their commander. But his tact was 
equal to his courage. Clearly appreciating the import- 
ance of retaining at least the semblance of good terms 
with the Governor, and the necessity of committing no 
act of violence which could expose him to contempt of 
Osorio's legitimate authority, he controlled his temper, 
courteously doffed his hat,* and left his presence. "I 
assure Your Majesty," wrote Aviles, "that I secured a 
greater victory in submitting patiently and quietly to his 
bad treatment than that which I gained over the French 
in Florida."' Aviles was now thrown upon his own 

'Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 113-118. Meras 
in ibid,, tomo i., pp. 141-143. Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Rela- 
ciones de la Florida, pp. 81, 82. 

* Barrientos, ibid., p. 82. Meras in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo i., p. 143. 

^ " Real Carta de complacencia otorgada a Pero Menendez por los servi- 
cios prestados en la conquista de la Florida, Madrid, May 12, 1566." 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 364, sets out the action of the King on 



222 The Spanish Settlements 

resources, and as the necessity of revictualling his starving 
colonies was pressing, he sold the prize captured by 
Marques, and with the proceeds loaded two vessels with 
sufficient provisions to last until January, one of which, 
in command of Diego de Amaya, was sent to the relief of 
the colonists at St. Augustine.' 

The air at Havana was full of rumours of English, 
French, and Portuguese pirates infesting the neighbour- 
ing islands, and while awaiting the month of March to 
return to Florida, and possibly also in order to keep his 
men out of mischief in view of the attitude of the Gov- 
ernor of Cuba, Aviles determined to go and fight them. 
In the latter part of November he set sail with the three 
vessels of his nephew and the ship of the unfortunate 
Juan de la Parra. The very day of his departure he 
overtook a ship which, mistaking him and his fleet for 
corsairs, put into the harbour of Matanzas, where her 
crew abandoned her and made for the land. On search- 
ing her she proved to be a royal dispatch boat, and hav- 
ing recalled the crew, he learned that they were bringing 
him advices from Spain to prepare nine months' supplies 
of meat and fish for a reinforcement of eighteen hundred 
men who were to sail for Florida'^ in command of Sancho 
de Arciniega." Convinced that these reinforcements were 

the case of La Parra. Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., 
p. 118. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. iii. 

* Avilez to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 109; Meras in 
ibid., tomo i., pp. 146, 147 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones 
de la Florida, pp. 82-84. 

' " Nombramiento de Capitan General de la Armada destinada para yr 
a la Provincia de la Florida al socorro del General Pero Menendez de 
Aviles, hecho por Su Magestad al Capitan Sancho de Arciniega. Ano 
1565." MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Mavarrete, tomo xiv., No. 38. 
See also " Relacion de la entrada y de la conquista que por mandado de 
Pero Menendez de Aviles hizo en 1565 \jic\ en el interior de la Florida el 
Capitan Juan Pardo, escrita por el mismo." Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
ii.. p. 465. 



The Ays Expedition 223 

sent in view of a threatened attack of a French fleet, 
Avil^s immediately abandoned his designs against the 
pirates and returned to Havana to forward the necessary 
material to Florida in anticipation of Arciniega's arrival.' 
He had already dispatched his brother-in-law, Meras, 
with a ship to Campeche to procure corn, chickens, shoes, 
and other necessary articles for Florida, with directions 
to proceed from there to New Spain, where he was to 
borrow money, enlist soldiers, and obtain some Dominican 
friars to convert the natives; and he now sent an addi- 
tional vessel to Campeche for more provisions.'' On De- 
cember 19th his nephew, Pedro Menendez Marques, had 
sailed for Spain bearing dispatches.^ 

Osorio continued to subject him to a variety of petty 
annoyances. Aviles had wished to impress into his own 
service the dispatch boat which had brought the an- 
nouncement of the prospective sailing of Arciniega's 
fleet : this the Governor had refused to allow. Then 
Aviles fell ill, and during the ten days he lay in bed forty 
of his men deserted, and Osorio lent him no assistance to 
recover them. The Governor impeded the departure of 
vessels going for provisions, and, according to the letter 
which Aviles wrote the King giving an account of the in- 
cident, he even sought to induce Hinestrosa to turn him 
out of his house, while he was still ill, with the object of 
driving him out of the town and compassing his death." 

Esteban de las Alas arrived early in January of 1566. 
After separating from Marques he had encountered Gon- 
zalo de Pefialosa, who had left Santo Domingo on the 
28th of September with the armament furnished by the 

'Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
110, 119. 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 83, 84. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
142. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 25, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 135-140. Same 
to same, ibid., Jan. 30, 1566, tomo ii., pp. 150, 151. 



224 The Spanish Settlements 

Audiencia of Santo Domingo, and had captured a prize 
on his way. Together they had put into Yaguana for 
water and provisions, where they spent two weeks, cap- 
turing another prize during their detention. Proceeding 
to Havana by the Old Bahama Channel, they encoun- 
tered a series of misfortunes. Delayed by the weather at 
various points along their route, they lost one ship in a 
storm, and at a harbour on the Cuban coast one hundred 
and ten men by desertion. Finally, at Sauana, Pefialosa 
received the news of the capture of Fort Caroline and, 
summoned to Havana with the remainder of his force, he 
delivered his dispatches to Aviles and found there his two 
vessels, which had preceded him in company with Las 
Alas. His presence being no longer required, Pefialosa 
attempted to return to Santo Domingo in his own vessels ; 
but Aviles impressed both of them for the Florida service 
and also took possession of one of his guns and Osorio of 
the other, and he was compelled to wait two months in 
Havana, before he secured a ship in which to depart.' 

The two vessels which had gone to Florida had now 
returned. That in command of Gonzalo Gallego had 
been absent but fifteen days. It found the Ays colony in 
a deplorable condition. Driven by starvation the settlers 
had divided up into small parties in search of food. The 
cacique of Ays had risen against them in company with 
the neighbouring Indians. In their extremity they had 
moved twenty leagues farther down the lagoon to the 
neighbourhood of Gilbert's Bar and St. Lucie River, 
where they had found more abundant food, fish and 
mulberries, and friendly Indians. During the four days 

' " Relacion del viaje que hizo a la Florida en 1566 [sic] el Capitan 
Gonzalo de Pefialosa en socorro del General Pero Menendez de Aviles." 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii. , pp. 473-476. The date is incorrect ; it 
should be 1565. Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 25, 1565, ibid., tomo ii., p. 
128. Same to same, Jan. 30, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 152. Meras in 
ibid., tomo i., p. 149. Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigiias Relaciones de 
la Florida, p. 85. 



The Ays Expedition 225 

previous to Gallego's arrival they had subsisted solely 
upon palmettos, grasses, and water, and they had named 
the place Santa Lucia.' 

Amaya'' had also reached St. Augustine in safety, un- 
loaded his supplies including some eighty sows, and 
then proceeded to San Mateo. Arriving there at the 
end of December, and overtaken by a storm, he lost his 
vessel on the bar, but by good fortune saved a small 
part of the provisions. He returned to Cuba in one 
of the two brigantines in which Aviles had planned 
to make his summer reconnaissance along the coast 
to the north, reaching Havana on the 28th of Jan- 
uary.^ The story which he brought with him was not 
encouraging. Over one hundred of the colonists at St. 
Augustine and San Mateo had died, for they were almost 
naked and had suffered greatly from the cold. The ofificers 
in charge reported that discontent was stirring, and that 
many of the settlers were speaking ill of the country and 
were anxious to abandon it. Indeed scarcely five days 
had elapsed after the departure of Avil^s before the spirit 
of insubordination began to assert itself, and with the 
opening of November its promoters were secretly hatch- 
ing plans and exchanging letters between the two forts, 
which were to bear fruit in broil and tumult.* It would be 
a serious matter for Avil6s should their evil report get 
abroad, for it would discourage immigration and make a 
speedy end of the fortune which he had embarked in the 
enterprise. With his fear of the consequences the harsh 

' Barrientos in ibid., pp. 96, 97; Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565; 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii,, p. in ; same to same, Jan. 30, 1566, ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 144, where Aviles uses the term " aca " for the direction in 
which Santa Lucia lay. See Appendix S, Santa Lucia. 

* Aviles calls him indifferently Diego de Maya and Amaya ; Meras and 
Barrientos call him Maya, 

^Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, Ruidiaz, tomo ii., p. 144; Barri- 
entos in Garcia, Dos Aniiguas Relaciones de la Florida^ p. gS. 

* Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 176. 



2 26 The Spanish Settlements 

nature of the soldier reappeared, and he wrote the King 
requesting that the justices of the Indies be authorised 
to seize all persons going to or coming from Florida 
without his licence, sending them prisoners to him in 
Florida, where they were to serve perpetually at the oars, 
like galley slaves.' 

The report had also reached him that the French had 
fortified Quale in the neighbourhood of Port Royal, 
where the Indians were numerous and friendly to them^; 
and Aviles concluded that the garrison must consist of 
the crews of the two ships which had escaped with Lau- 
donniere and Jacques Ribaut, for he was still unaware of 
their return to France. In these gloomy tidings there 
was but one ray of light. It was said that over one 
thousand ducats' worth of gold and silver had already 
been collected from the natives. Menendez, however, 
concluded not to return immediately to Florida on ac- 
count of the tempestuous season.' He had already 
formed the plan of exploring the southern end of the 
peninsula and ascending its western shore as far as the 
Bay of San Jusepe in search of a good harbour, and his 
mind was set upon constructing a fort at the Bay of 
Ponce de Leon, which he believed to be but fifteen or 
twenty leagues distant from a south-western mouth of the 
St. John's River, by which a convenient water communi- 
cation with San Mateo and St. Augustine would be se- 
cured. He had also learned that somewhere about the 
southern end of the peninsula there were Christian men 
and women reduced to a state of savagery, captives for 
twenty years in the hands of a chief named Carlos, who 
yearly sacrificed a number of them to his idols. Before 
setting out in search of them he caused masses to be said 

' Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 153. 
2 Aviles, in his letter of Jan. 30, 1566 (ibid., tomo ii., p. 145), says there 
were forty villages within a distance of three or four leagues of Guale. 
^Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 145, 146, 153. 



The Ays Expedition 227 

before St. Anthony, whose peculiar attribute it is to bring 
about the recovery of lost objects, that through the saint's 
intercession he might discover the harbour where they 
dwelt.' Perhaps there still lurked in his mind a secret 
hope that his son Juan might be alive among them, or 
that the natives might give him some information by 
which his son might be found. With this end in view, 
and in order to reach Guale by the end of March or the 
beginning of April, after relieving his garrison on the 
River of Ays, he advanced the date of his departure by 
a month or two." 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 150 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Re- 
laciones de la Florida, p. 85. 

^ Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, Ruidlaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 
145-148. 



CHAPTER II 

THE CARLOS EXPEDITION— MUTINY AT THE SETTLE- 
MENTS 

. r^EBRUARY lo, 1566/ Aviles left Havana on his ex- 
f^ pedition for the southern point of Florida with seven 
vessels and five hundred men. One of the objects which 
he had chiefly in view was the discovery of a safe passage 
for the fleets of New Spain between the Tortugas and the 
Florida Keys. Having assured himself of its existence, 
he took the direction of Florida in search of the captive 
Christians. Putting Las Alas in command of the fleet, 
he embarked with Diego de Amaya and thirty men in 
two small vessels drawing but little water, and proceeded 
along the coast, while the large ships accompanied him 
outside. 

On the third day a squall separated him from the fleet ; 
and on the following day, about the i8th of the month, 
as Avil6s and his captain was continuing their reconnais- 
sance of the coast, a canoe put out from the shore and, 
drawing near to the boat in command of Amaya, a man 
called out to him in Spanish: "Welcome, Spaniards and 
Christian brothers! God and St. Mary have told us that 
you were coming. And the Christian men and women 
Avho are still alive here have directed me to wait for you 
here with this canoe, to give you a letter, which I have." 
The surprise and joy of the Spaniards can be readily pic- 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 85 ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz {La Florida, tomo i., p. 176) says Oct. 26, 1565, an evi- 
dent error. 



The Carlos Expedition 229 

tured, as they received the speaker into their boat. He 
was naked except for a small deer-skin loin-cloth, and was 
painted like an Indian. Amaya embraced him and asked 
for his letter, whereupon the poor fellow drew from be- 
neath his meagre garment a cross, saying: "That is the 
letter which the captive Christians yonder send you, be- 
seeching you, by the death suffered by Our Lord for our 
salvation, not to pass by but to enter the harbour and 
rescue us from the cacique, and carry us to a Christian 
land." When Aviles himself came up the Spaniard in- 
formed him that they were in all twelve men and women 
in the hands of the Indians, the sole survivors of two 
hundred persons who, in the course of the past twenty 
years had been cast ashore on that inhospitable coast. 
All but these the cacique and his father had sacrificed 
to their idols. Then they knelt down, and adored the 
cross, thanking God for His mercy. Directing his boats 
to land, Aviles entered the harbour and they all sprang 
ashore. 

The country was that of the Caloosas on the southern 
extremity of the peninsula, extending westward from 
Point Sable and up the western coast, probably as far 
north as the southern shores of Tampa Bay. It is for 
the most part a comparatively narrow strip of land closed 
in between the Everglades to the north and east, and 
the Gulf of Mexico, a country of low hills and drowned 
mangrove swamps, with streams of fresh water which 
take their rise in the Everglades. The coast is deeply 
indented with numerous bays and fringed with countless 
islands. At the time of Aviles's visit, the settlements of 
the Caloosas and of the Indians subject to them occupied 
the islands of the northern extremity of the Florida Keys, 
as well as those along the western coast, and on the main- 
land their many villages extended into the interior as far 
as the shores of Lake Miami.' 

' See Appendix T, Caloosa. 



230 The Spanish Settlements 

Very little is known of the habits of this tribe. The 
shamans stood next in dignity to the chiefs of the tribe, 
and, in addition to their religious functions, worked cures 
among the sick, like others of their kind throughout the 
continent. They played a very influential part in the 
public council, and no action of any consequence was un- 
dertaken without their advice. The geographer Velasco 
has left us an account of some of the tribal customs. 
On the death of the child of a chief, his subjects sacrificed 
some of their sons and daughters to accompany it on its 
journey after death. On the death of the chief, his serv- 
ants were killed. The Christian captives were annually 
offered up as food to the idols, who were said to feed 
upon their eyes, and a dance was performed with the 
head of the victim. A festival was also observed during 
the summer season, which continued for the space of 
three months, during which the shamans assembled near 
the village and ran wildly about at night, wearing horns 
upon their heads and imitating the cries of wolves and 
other wild beasts. The idols were certain grotesque 
masks, probably emblematic of the tribal deities, and 
which were preserved in a temple ; in one of the cere- 
monies a procession of shamans wearing these m.asks, pre- 
ceded by a group of women singing ritual songs, passed 
through the village, while the Indians would come out of 
their houses to pay their homage to the idols and ac- 
company them with dancing back to the temple.' 

Half a league distant from the landing-place was the 
village called Carlos, where dwelt the chief of the same 
name.^ Fontanedo tells us that the name signifies "cruel 

' Dos breves memorias sobre las costumbres de los yndios de la Florida, 
MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 135, caj. 7, leg. 8. yavva is the 
name given them by Alegre in his Historia de la Compaiiia de yesus en la 
Nueva Espana, Mexico, 1842, tomo i., p. 15. In the Histoire Notable, 
Basanier, Paris, 1566, p. 78, Laudonniere gives iarua as the Timuquanan 
name for the shamans. 

* Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 87, 



The Carlos Expedition 231 

village," ' but the Spaniards, who had corrupted its pro- 
nunciation, believed that the Indian chief had assumed it 
in imitation of Charles V. on learning from some of his 
white captives that he was the greatest monarch on the 
earth.' 

The Christian slave whom the Spaniards had just res- 
cued was sent to inform Carlos of the arrival of an em- 
bassy sent by the King of Spain to secure his friendship, 
and bearing gifts for himself and his wives. Shortly 
thereafter the cacique came down to receive the new- 
comers, accompanied by a train of three hundred naked 
bowmen, each wearing a small deer-skin loin-cloth. 
Avil6s, suspecting treachery, withdrew his boats a short 
distance from the land. After he had so placed them that 
the artillery would command the shore, he caused a carpet 
to be spread out on the ground, on which the cacique and 
his principal men seated themselves in a group facing the 
Adelantado, who was attended by thirty of his arquebus- 
men carrying lighted matches. Then the cacique knelt 
down and extended his arms with the palms of his hands 

says : " Esta la tierra de Este Cacique Entre la tierra de los martires digo 
la caueza de los martires, y baya de Ju° ponce. Al poniente de la Caueca 
de los martires." From this it would appear that he indicates Chatham 
Bay as the Bay of Ponce de Leon, and that he locates the village of Carlos 
about in the position given it in Le Moyne's map, at the southern extrem- 
ity of the peninsula. But it must be remembered that his geographical 
information was of the vaguest description, and the village was probably 
in the same location as when it was visited by Ponce de Leon, i. e., on 
Charlotte Harbour. See Spanish Settlemetits, vol. i., p. 441, The Bay of 
Juan Ponce. Meras {Ruid^az, tomo i., p. 164) says it contained over 4000 
inhabitants. 

^ " Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la Florida," Col. Doc. Inedit. 
Jndias, tomo v., p. 534. 

* Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 167 ; Barrientos in Garcia, 
Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 87. On the Spanish corruption 
of Indian names, see: Herrera, Historia General, Madrid, 1726, vol. ii., 
dec. 3, lib. viii., cap. viii. p. 241 ; Coxe's "Carolina," reprint in Hist. Col, 
of Louisiana, by B. F. French, Philadelphia, 1850, Pt. II., p. 233; Daniel 
G. Brinton, Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, Philadelphia, 1859, P- ^12. 



232 The Spanish Settlements 

turned upward, upon which the Adelantado in turn placed 
his two hands. This was the mark of the highest rever- 
ence that the Caloosas could pay to a superior. Aviles 
followed with a distribution of presents. To the chief 
he gave a shirt, a pair of silk breeches, and a hat. He was 
a young man of twenty-five, tall and well formed, "and 
in his dress looked much the gentleman," says Barrientos. 
Other small gifts were given him for his wives. Bread, 
wine, and honey were served to the natives, with which 
they were greatly pleased, and the chief presented Aviles 
with a bar of silver and some other small objects in gold 
and jewels, and asked for more food and wine. To this 
Aviles replied that he had not sufficient for so many 
people, and invited Carlos and his principal men into 
his boat, where he promised to serve them a still more 
savoury repast. 

Yielding to his curiosity and cupidity Carlos entered 
the ship with twenty of his companions, whereupon Aviles 
drew up the anchors and ran for the open. The Indians 
sprang to their feet in terror; but a soldier had previously 
been stationed by each of the natives to prevent his 
escape, should he make the attempt, and the General in- 
formed them through the interpreter, that, as his boats 
were small, he had only withdrawn from land to prevent 
the entrance of more Indians. He then regaled them 
with more food and gifts, and when Carlos finally wished 
to depart, informed him that the King of Spain wished to 
make friends with him and requested the return of the 
Christian captives, threatening him with death if he failed 
to comply, and making him the usual promises of friend- 
ship and assistance against his enemies in case he obeyed. 
Carlos readily agreed to his demand, and within an hour 
five women and three men were delivered up. Avil6s 
directed them to be clothed, and the unfortunate creatures 
wept tears of joy at their deliverance, although their 
hearts were racked because of the children they left 



The Carlos Expedition 233 

behind. After this, more gifts were distributed among 
the Indians and Carlos at last returned to his village, in- 
viting the Adelantado to visit him and his wives, and 
promising to send two more Christian men and a woman, 
who were living in the interior. 

The next morning the cacique, who had planned to 
slaughter the Spaniards in a grove on the way to his vil- 
lage, sent a number of canoes to bring the General ashore, 
and soon followed them in person with a large company 
of unarmed natives, bearing branches of palms, singing, 
and making great demonstrations of joy. They had 
come, said Carlos, to bear the Spaniards to their village 
on their backs as a mark of honour, and he himself would 
carry the Adelantado, a custom they had observed for 
other Christians who had visited his country, and his 
people would accompany them with rejoicings, "for we 
are all God's creatures," added the wily chief. But 
Aviles had been warned of the treachery by one of the 
Christian slaves and answered with equal guile. He 
thanked the Indians for their courtesy; observed that 
those who had accepted such treatment were but false 
Christians ; that for his part he would never consent to be 
so honoured ; and that he would visit their village with a 
few of his Spaniards. But the savages were too shrewd 
to be thus deceived, and, perceiving that they had been 
betrayed, at once took flight, whereupon Men^ndez, 
anxious to retain their confidence, and to convince them 
that he knew nothing of their designs, brought his boats 
around to the neighbourhood of the village, blew his 
trumpet, and unfurled his flags as a signal for their canoes 
to come out and take him ashore. But this the Indians 
refused to do. 

Anxious to rejoin the five ships from which he had 
become separated, Aviles now determined to set out in 
search of them, and, hearing of three captive Christians 
in a neighbouring harbour, went there in the hope of 



234 The Spanish Settlements 

finding his vessels, and recovering the slaves ' ; but the 
search proved vain. Returning to the port of Carlos, he 
found that Las Alas had arrived in the meantime and had 
even visited the Indian town, where he had been well re- 
ceived by the natives, who were cowed at the sight of so 
strong a force, and where his soldiers had obtained by 
barter gold and silver to the value of over two thousand 
ducats. 

Menendez was eager to return to the settlements he 
had planted, but he was also unwilling to leave the 
Caloosas without having first secured the friendship of 
their chief; he therefore dispatched the Christian slave 
who had met him on his arrival to inform Carlos that the 
Spaniards were still in ignorance of the treachery which 
the Indians had planned. Carlos, blinded by his desire 
to obtain more gifts from these guileless visitors, readily 
believed the messenger, came to visit the Adelantado 
with but five or six companions, offered him his sister 
in marriage, asked him to take her to a Christian land, 
and then to send her back that he and all his people might 
become of the same faith, and again renewed the invita- 
tion to visit his village and his wives, to all of which 
Aviles again consented. 

While the Adelantado and the Indian chief were each 
struggling to outwit the other, the one to retain his 
country and the other to win it for his King, another and 
less worthy object had stirred the cupidity of the soldiers. 
The sight of the gold collected by the followers of Las 
Alas and the report of the great wealth of Carlos had 
awakened the same emotions in the breasts of the Span- 
iards as those which had arisen in the heart of the Indian 
chief on seeing their paltry beads and hatchets; and the 
former, hoping to work upon the financial necessity in 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 150, says this harbour was 50 
leagues beyond, possibly Old Tampa, at the head of which stood the vil- 
lage of Tocobaga, which he subsequently visited. 



The Carlos Expedition 235 

which they all knew that Aviles was placed, urged him to 
hold Carlos for a ransom. Carlos himself was reported 
to have over one hundred thousand ducats; and even 
were his treasures not so large, no one could tell how 
much gold and silver there might be in the possession of 
his friends and relatives, accumulated from the vessels 
wrecked along the coast. With this they would readily 
part, for the natives were in blissful ignorance of its 
value, bartering a piece of gold worth seventy ducats for 
an ace of diamonds, and a hundred ducats of silver for a 
pair of scissors. But the Adelantado was above tempta- 
tion and simply replied that the Indian had come to him 
trusting in his word, and would not think the Spaniards 
were good Christians if he caught them in a lie; and 
although his soldiers succeeded in collecting from the 
Indians precious metal to the value of thirty-five hundred 
ducats, with which the Spaniards at once began to gamble, 
he persisted in his refusal to take anything for himself. 
So Carlos returned in safety to his village. 

The next day Avil6s returned his visit with what pomp 
and circumstance he could muster, in order to impress 
the natives with his importance. He must have pre- 
sented a curious sight to the gaping savages as he threaded 
his way through the groves of palmettos to the great 
house of the chief, which stood but a little distance from 
the shore near which the ships were drawn up. Attended 
by twenty gentlemen and a very small dwarf, who was an - 
excellent dancer and singer, he marched at the head of 
his two hundred arquebusiers, each man fully armed, clad 
in cuirass and morion, with unfurled banner, to the ac- 
companying music of two pipers and drummers, three 
trumpeters, a harp, a violin, and a psaltery. On reach- 
ing the spacious dwelling' of the cacique, he stationed 
his men on the outside, their matches lighted in case of 

• Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Relaciones de la Florida, p. 92, says 
it would accommodate 2000 men, an evident exaggeration. 



236 The Spanish Settlements 

an emergency, and entered it with the music and his 
twenty attendant gentlemen. 

Carlos, likewise desiring to be duly impressive, had 
prepared an elaborate reception for his visitors. The ca- 
cique sat alone, enthroned on a raised seat, surrounded 
by a company of one hundred chief men and other per- 
sonages, who crouched below him. At a little distance 
from him sat his sister, plain, tall, and sedate, and about 
thirty-five years of age, around whom squatted the native 
women. As Avil^s entered Carlos courteously offered 
him his throne and withdrew to some distance, but this 
the Adelantado would not permit and he placed his host 
beside him, after which the ceremonious salutation pre- 
viously described was repeated by the Indian's sister and 
the chief men. Meanwhile over five hundred youths 
from ten to fifteen years of age had assembled in front of 
the open windows and began to sing, while others danced 
and pirouetted, and the men and women within joined in 
the singing. Then the brothers and relatives of the chief, 
some of whom were nearly one hundred years old, per- 
formed a dance. During all of the entertainment the 
Indian women without the house sang alternately in two 
groups of fifty each. 

The dance over, the repast was about to be served 
when Menendez, who had noted down some of the native 
words, asked for a little delay, and addressed Carlos and 
his sister in their own language, to the amazement of the 
assembly, who thought that the paper itself spoke. At 
his request the chieftain's wife was brought in. She 
proved to be a handsome young woman of twenty, of 
good address, with fine eyes and eyebrows, shapely hands, 
and graceful figure, naked as Eve before the fall except 
for a covering which she wore in front, a rich necklace of 
pearls and precious stones, and some golden trinkets 
about her throat. 

The Adelantado, who was a courtly man, took her by 



The Carlos Expedition 237 

the hand and seated her between her husband and his 
sister "and as he had been told that she was very hand- 
some, he had written down the words in which to tell her 
so, at which," writes his brother-in-law, 

" she showed herself not to be displeased, and blushed very 
prettily, looking frankly at her husband. The cacique showed 
that he regretted having brought his wife, and ordered her to 
depart, fearing she would be taken from him, but the Adelan- 
tado told him through the interpreter not to send her away, 
asking that she dine with them." ' 

This was followed by a succulent repast served by the 
natives and consisting of cooked fish and oysters roasted, 
boiled, and raw, to which the Adelantado contributed 
biscuit, honey, sugar, and wine, with comfits and quince 
preserve. Throughout the feast his own music played 
and the dwarf danced, at which the cacique bade his In- 
dians to cease their singing, for he said, "The Christians 
know many things." Then some of the Spanish gentle- 
men sang in concert, for the Adelantado was fond of 
music. The repast was concluded with a distribution 
of gifts among the natives. 

As the Adelantado prepared to depart, Carlos reminded 
him of the alliance which he had proposed, saying that 
his Indians would not submit to having his sister rejected, 
but would rise against him. The unexpected request at 
once placed Avil6s in a difficult if not a dangerous posi- 
tion, for it demanded an immediate answer, and although 
his bodyguard stood without prepared for every emer- 
gency, he was himself surrounded by the savages and for 
the moment completely in their power. But he met it 
with tact and discretion, observing that Christian men 
could only marry Christian women : Carlos answered that 
they were such already, having taken him as a brother. 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i. , p. 162. 



238 The Spanish Settlements 

To this Aviles replied that in order to become Christians 
they would have to learn and believe many things, 

" and he told them who God was, His wisdom, power, and 
goodness, and that all creatures born upon earth must worship 
and obey Him alone, and that we Christians who do so, go to 
heaven when we die, and that there we live forever without 
dying, and see our wives, and children, and brothers, and 
friends, and are ever joyful, singing and laughing; and that 
they in their ignorance do not serve or worship God, but 
serve a very warlike and lying chief called the Devil, and when 
they die, they go to him, and are forever weeping, because 
they are often very cold, and again very hot, and there is 
nothing to satisfy them." ' 

Notwithstanding his sound doctrine, Aviles consulted 
with his captains as to what course he should take. They 
all agreed that it was desirable to conciliate the Indians 
in order to bring them to a knowledge of the true faith, 
and the Adelantado finally accepted the situation, al- 
though he did so most unwillingly. So the chief's sister 
was baptised and named Dona Antonia, and the nuptials 
were performed that night in some tents which the Span- 
iards had erected near by amidst the great rejoicing of the 
natives, who celebrated the occasion with singing and 
dancing, and to the furtherance among them of the 
Christian religion." Aviles, having now achieved his ob- 
ject, and secured the friendship of Carlos, determined to 
continue his journey. His Indian wife and seven of her 
companions were sent with Las Alas and five of the ships 
to Havana to be instructed in the Catholic faith. He 
also caused a great cross to be erected close to the chief's 
dwelling, which he bade the Indians to reverence as their 
principal idol and to abandon their other gods. But the 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 164. 

^ Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 164-166. Barrientos omits the incident in 
his account. 



The Carlos Expedition 239 

still distrustful Carlos refused his consent to the new wor- 
ship until the return of his sister from Havana. Avil^s 
promised to send her back in the lapse of three or four 
months, and then sailed away in the two remaining ves- 
sels, having named the harbour San Antonio, after St. 
Anthony, to whose intercession he attributed the happy 
discovery and deliverance of the Christian captives.' 

While the Adelantado was turning compliments to In- 
dian beauties and marrying a native wife, affairs had 
reached a desperate pass in the three colonies he had 
founded along the east coast of the peninsula. The ves- 
sel sent to Yucatan in command of his brother-in-law had 
returned to Havana with a load of provisions, where 
Meras left it and continued his journey to New Spain 
to fulfil the mission with which he had been entrusted. 
Hinestrosa, Avil^s's agent in Havana, sent it immediately 
to the relief of the colony at Santa Lucia, the harbour 
whither Medrano had gone after leaving Ays. When the 
ship arrived at the settlement it was found that the In- 
dians had risen and killed fifteen of the colonists, for the 
soldiers were exhausted with their joUrney thither, and 
the natives were so dexterous with their bows that they 
could discharge twenty arrows while the soldiers were 
firing a single shot. At first the colonists had driven 
them away, but when the fort was completed a thousand 
Indians came down upon them, fought them for four 
hours, wounded the captain and the sub-lieutenant, killed 
eight soldiers, and shot six thousand arrows into the fort. 

As the attacks were renewed daily, it soon became im- 
possible to search for provisions, and the small garrison, 

1 Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 150-168 ; Barrientos, in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 84-95. The Spanish 
Relations and geographers usually call the village Carlos after the name of 
its chief. Since the identity of the Carlos village of Ponce de Leon and of 
other explorers with the village mentioned by Aviles cannot be positively 
established, the name of San Antonio is retained in this narrative to indi- 
cate the locality visited by the latter. 



240 The Spanish Settlements 

with their rations reduced to a pound of corn distributed 
among ten soldiers, began to suffer the pangs of hunger. 
A dwarf palmetto sold for a ducat, a snake for four, a rat 
for eight reales. The bones of animals and of fishes 
which had been dead for years, and even shoes and leather 
belts were eaten, and the soldiers gradually succumbed to 
starvation until only thirty men were left capable of bear- 
ing arms. At this pass the sub-lieutenant and the vicar, 
Mendoza, endeavoured to reach Havana in a boat in 
search of succour, without a soul among the crew who 
understood navigation ; but foul weather drove them 
back again and forced them to return to Santa Lucia. 
Eight days later the caravel arrived. Then the soldiers 
rose, seized its master, wounded Medrano and the sub- 
lieutenant, captured the boat, and set sail in her for 
Havana. Fifteen leagues from Santa Lucia they en- 
countered Avil^s, who had been reconnoitring a harbour 
in the Bahama Channel, and was now on his way up the 
coast with his two vessels. But the unfortunate deserters 
were doomed to return to Florida, for Avil^s took pos- 
session of their caravel, embarked in it with a number of 
his gentlemen, and continued his journey in the direction 
of St. Augustine, which he reached on the 20th of March 
(1566). 

Similar disturbances had occurred both at St. Augustine 
and at San Mateo. Early in February, before setting 
out for Carlos, Men^ndez had dispatched a second ship- 
load of corn and other necessities to the former of the 
two ports. On the arrival of the relief party it found 
Bartolome Menendez absent with a party of soldiers to 
collect corn from the hostile Indians, and the settlement 
in a most distressing condition. Hunger and discon- 
tent had brought about the usual results. Before the 
ship could be unloaded the settlers, headed by a captain 
named Francisco de Recalde, who had previously been 
suspected of setting fire to Fort San Mateo, and a priest 



The Carlos Expedition 241 

from Seville, named Rueda/ rose in mutiny, seized the 
camp master and other officials, spiked the guns of the 
fort, appointed a leader and a sergeant major, and cap- 
tured the vessel with the intention of abandoning the 
country. As the ship proved to be too small to accom- 
modate all of the mutineers, the sergeant major went 
about the settlement with a bodyguard, selecting those 
who were to depart. While he was thus employed in 
choosing his companions the camp master succeeded in 
freeing himself and eight of the royal officers and officials. 
Securing arms they attacked and captured the leader of 
the mutineers and his sergeant major, and destroyed the 
boat in which they were about to put out to the ship. 
Perceiving the turn which affairs had taken, those aboard 
the vessel spread their sails and escaped with one hundred 
and thirty men. The leaders were executed on the spot 
and order was again restored ; but the commander of the 
garrison fell ill of the anxiety caused by the mutiny, as 
did also Bartolome Men^ndez on his return.' 

Simultaneously and in connivance with the mutineers 
at St. Augustine, an uprising had occurred at San Mateo, 
due to general discontent at the poverty of the country 
in gold and silver. The ship which Laudonni^re had 
been building to transport his people to France was still 
unfinished and the mutineers pressed for its completion. 
They had secretly advised the leaders at St. Augustine to 
secure the vessel there, and with the arrival of the first 
succour at San Mateo it was their intention to seize the 
ship in which it came, and with these three vessels to 
abandon the country. Villarroel, who was in command 
at San Mateo, suspected their designs, but could do little 
to control them, and the camp master at St. Augustine 
sent him word in a letter concealed in the coat of a 

* Meras in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo i., p. 190. 

* Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 171-173 ; Barrientosin Garcia, Dos Antiguas 
Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 98, 99. 

**.— 16. 



242 The Spanish Settlements 

messenger to delay the completion of the French ship 
and to temporise as best he could until the arrival of 
reinforcements. But his efforts were unsuccessful, and 
the mutineers had not only secured the vessel in which 
they embarked to the number of one hundred and 
twenty,' leaving Villarroel with only twenty-five men in 
charge of San Mateo, but had also succeeded in stirring 
up war with Saturiba, 

The friendship which Aviles had established with 
the Indians, by his judicious treatment of them, had so 
far continued without interruption. But the mutineers, 
says Meras,' on deserting the fort, hoping that the Indians 
would quickly attack it and murder the garrison as soon 
as they became aware of the small number of its defenders, 
determined to hasten the event. With this object in view 
the two leaders maltreated the natives, and killed a num- 
ber of them, including two of the chief men. The re- 
venge came quickly. Villarroel, in ignorance of the Indian 
outbreak, had sent to St. Augustine for reinforcements 
as soon as he found himself abandoned. Saturiba, who 
had doubtless observed with grim contentment the same 
disintegrating forces at work which had wrought such 
havoc among the French, seized his two messengers by 
surprise, split open their breasts, and cut out their hearts. 
On the same day that the General reached St. Augustine, 
Las Alas entered the harbour, bringing supplies from 
Havana, where he had left Dona Antonia and her com- 
panions. As the San Mateo mutineers had not yet sailed 
Aviles at once informed them of the arrival of succour 
and offered them a general pardon. But their hearts 
were set upon abandoning the country. They had en- 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 176, says this mutiny occurred 
after Aviles's departure for Guale. On p. 180 he speaks of it as prior 
thereto. As Meras was not present on the occasion, the order of the 
events followed in the text is that given by Barrientos. 

* Meras in ibid,, tomo i., p. 181. 



The Carlos Expedition 243 

listed in the hope of conquering another El Dorado; they 
had encountered but hardship and privation, and they 
were determined to seek their fortunes elsewhere, in Peru 
or New Spain, where more substantial returns awaited 
their endeavours than slow starvation on palmetto roots 
and grasses. Out of the entire company some thirty-five 
noblemen, who had joined their ranks, accepted the par- 
don and returned to the fort. The balance sent word 
that they had not come over to plough and plant, and 
that they wished to go to the Indies to live like Christians 
and not to live like beasts in Florida.' 

^ Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 169-181 ; Barrientos in Garcia, Dos An- 
tiguas Relaciones de la Florida^ pp. 96-100. 



CHAPTER III 

EXPEDITIONS TO GUALE, ST. JOHN'S RIVER, AND 
CHESAPEAKE BAY 

AVILES at once determined to anticipate the de- 
parture of the San Mateo mutineers and punish 
them, when he was delayed by a further defection among 
the force at St. Augustine. The leader was the same 
Captain San Vincente who had prophesied a failure of the 
expedition against Fort Caroline, a grumbler and a cow- 
ard according to Merds, who may have had some secret 
grudge against him.' At the head of a hundred soldiers 
he asked leave to set sail in a caravel that was on the 
point of departure for Hispaniola. In vain Avil^s urged 
upon him his pressing need of men in view of the out- 
break among the Indians, and his own immediate de- 
parture for Quale. Embarking in the caravel, which was 
under orders to convey them to Puerto Rico, the de- 
serters compelled the pilot to take the direction of 
Havana, from which they could best make their way to 
Honduras, Yucatan, and New Spain. But a contrary 
wind arose and carried them in thirty days to Puerto de 
Plata in the island of Santo Domingo, where other fugi- 
tives from St. Augustine had already preceded them. 
They arrived wasted and ill with the long journey, their 
provisions having spoiled with the heat, and were well 
received by the governor, Francisco de Cevallos, al- 
though the royal cedillas had already reached him direct- 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 86, go, 178. 
244 



Expeditions to Guale 245 

ing the arrest of all such deserters and their return to 
Florida. Aviles soon learned of their arrival and urged 
the enforcement of the orders, but his demands were dis- 
regarded, and the mutineers spread abroad such discour- 
aging reports of the country that the result soon followed 
which the General had anticipated. Intending immigrants 
abandoned the enterprise, and it was even said that some 
of the royal ministers condemned the Adelantado for his 
precipitate action in seeking to colonise so unpromising a 
region.' 

Aviles was now at liberty to pursue his expedition to 
Guale. Leaving one hundred and fifty men distributed 
between St. Augustine and San Mateo, he set sail the ist 
of April (1566)* with one hundred and fifty men in two 
small boats and a ship under the command of Las Alas. 
He took with him as interpreter the Frenchman Rufin/ 
whom Manrique de Rojas had rescued from Ribaut's col- 
ony at Charlesfort. Three days out he entered a har- 
bour, and landed within a quarter of a league of an Indian 
village, where he was met by a party of forty Indians, from 
the midst of whom a Frenchman addressed him in Span- 
ish, telling him that the name of the village was Guale, 
and that he had been sent to prevent their landing if they 
proved to be Spaniards. The Frenchman explained that 
he had belonged to the scouting party sent to Fort Caro- 
line by Ribaut after the wreck of the fleet. On arriving 
there and learning of the capture of the fort by the Span- 
iards, the scouts had not returned to Ribaut, but had 
escaped to the neighbourhood of Santa Elena.* Aviles 



' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. loi ; 
Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 184-187 ; Barcia, Ensayo, Ana 
MDLXVI., pp. 102-104. 

2 Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 102. 

^ Barrientos in ibid., p. 103, calls him by his Christian name, Guillermo. 

■• Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 193, and see Barcia, Ensayo, 
Ano MDLXV., p. 84. 



246 The Spanish Settlements 

replied that his people did not harm the natives, and 
would not land against their will. After further parley, 
the Indians invited the Spaniards to visit their village, 
and Aviles set out in their company with a small band 
of soldiers. On the way he learned that two weeks be- 
fore his arrival a party of fifteen Lutherans, who had 
escaped from Ribaut's fleet, had set sail for Newfound- 
land in search of French fishing vessels, after a sojourn 
of five months in that locality. The Frenchman also in- 
formed him that the cacique of Guale was at war with the 
cacique of Crista,' two of whose relatives he had taken 
prisoners with the assistance of the French fugitives. 

The Spaniards were peacefully received at the village, 
where they were quartered in the house of the French 
fugitives, and Aviles, as was his custom, began to give 
the natives some religious instruction. As the local in- 
terpreter was Lutheran he ordered him, under pain of 
death, to tell the Indians that he and his soldiers had 
come to Christianise them. A cross was set up and three 
youths of his company chanted the Christian doctrine 
before it, while the trembling interpreter informed the 
natives that the Spaniards, who were true Christians, had 
come to kill the Lutherans, who were false Christians. 
Other religious instruction was given of a less militant 
description, and the Indians expressed their willingness 
to embrace the faith. 

Next day the Adelantado assembled the principal men, 
expressed his desire to re-establish peace between the 
contending caciques, and asked that the two relatives of 
Orista be surrendered to him, promising to return them 
in case Orista would not come to terms. The Guale 
chief replied that for eight months no rain had fallen, 
their corn-fields and plantations had dried up, they were 
sorrowful because of the scarcity of food, and that they 
wished to sacrifice these two Indians to their gods to in- 

' Possibly the Audusta of Laudonniere. 



Expeditions to Guale 247 

duce them to send them rain. "Not so," replied Aviles. 
"God is angry with you, and denies you the rain, because 
you are at war with Crista and wish to slay these two In- 
dians and because you kill his people when you capture 
them" ; and then he offered to leave two of his own sol- 
diers as hostages for their return, in case the peace could 
not be brought about. The following day the Guale chief 
surrendered his two captives, and Aviles set out for 
Orista with two small boats, leaving his nephew, Alonzo 
Menendez Marques, and Vasco Zaval with the Indians 
after he had informed the chief that he would cut off their 
heads should evil befall the hostages during his absence, 
and would, moreover, ally himself with their enemy, 
Orista. "The cacique and the other Indians were terri- 
fied at this," says Barrientos, "for they knew already 
what he had done to the Lutherans, and how victorious 
he had been in all of his undertakings, for news travels 
over the country from chief to chief very rapidly." ' Six 
Spaniards also remained with the natives to Christianise 
them. 

Avil6s had spent four days in Guale, and on leaving he 
encountered Las Alas, who had gone in search of him in 
his ship. The next day he entered the harbour of Santa 
Elena, which was but eighteen or twenty leagues distant 
from Guale, ^ and visited the neighbouring Indian village, 
but two leagues distant, in company with Las Alas and a 
hundred soldiers. The inhabitants were at work rebuild- 
ing their huts which had been burned to the ground by 
the Guale Indians, and, anticipating another attack, at 
first assumed a hostile attitude, but, on recognising their 
two comrades, they gave the Spaniards a friendly recep- 
tion, and sent word of the arrival of the strangers, to the 
neighbouring subject chiefs. Crista was in another vil- 
lage near at hand, where Aviles visited him, returned his 

■ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relacmies de la Florida, p. 105. 
* Barrientos in ibid., p. 104. 



248 The Spanish Settlements 

relatives to him, and invited him througli Rufin, who 
was married to a daughter of one of the subject chiefs, 
to turn Christian, to which he promptly consented. A 
public rejoicing was celebrated, attended by the usual 
ceremonies. 

On the following day Crista, with his wife and a party 
of natives, embarked in the boats and, descending the 
river, accompanied the Adelantado to his village, where 
the night was passed. Then a site was selected for the 
Fort of San Felipe on a small island within a league of 
the bar, where it would be visible from the sea. The 
island was covered at the time with a dense forest of oak 
and pine, liquidambar, nut trees, and laurel. A plan for 
the fort was traced out on the only elevation which the 
island contained, at the side of a small haven, and with 
the assistance of the natives it was completed in fifteen 
days, mounted with six pieces of artillery, and garrisoned 
with one hundred and six men under the command of 
Las Alas. Despite its attractive appearance and ad- 
vantageous position on the river flowing into the harbour, 
the situation was a poor one. The island was isolated 
from the mainland by extensive swamps and marshes, was 
subject to frequent overflow with the high tides, which 
rendered cultivation very difficult, and was too small 
to accommodate the population which ultimately settled 
there.' When the construction of the fort was finished 
Avil6s sent word to the settlers at St. Augustine of the 
success of his expedition and of his intention to return 
to them at an early day. Before his departure from San 
Felipe he left a soldier with each of the subject chiefs, 
who had asked for some one to instruct them in the 
faith. He then set out for Guale with a small party, 

' " Discurso sobre la poblacion de la costa de la Florida, e inconvinientes 
que se ofrecieren para su fortificacion y defensa." 1577-1580. MS. 
Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv., Doc. No. 47. 
See Appendix U, San Felipe. 



Expeditions to Guale 249 

taking two of the principal men with him, and sent Rufin 
in advance to inform the cacique of the peaceful outcome 
of the negotiations. 

During his absence the drought had continued through- 
out the region subject to the Guale chief, and when Aviles 
reached the village the afiflicted savage besought him to 
ask God to send rain. But the Adelantado answered 
evasively, "God will not hearken to my prayer, because 
He is angry with you for your failure to comply with our 
desires," and the chief departed, much depressed at the 
refusal. The youths who had been left there to instruct j 
the natives, observing his disappointment, determined to 
play upon his superstition, and informed him, through 
the interpreter, that they would pray God for rain. At 
this, full of gratitude for their assistance, he loaded them 
down with presents of deer-skins, corn, and fish, with 
which the lads departed, well pleased at their successful 
deception. But the news of it soon reached the ears of 
the General, and, indignant at the trick the boys had 
practised, he ordered their spoils to be taken from them, 
and had them stripped to receive a whipping. When 
this in turn became known to the Guale chief, he came 
in great sorrow to the Adelantado and addressed him, 
saying, with Indian stoicism: "You have deceived me, 
for you will not ask God for rain, and now you wish to 
punish the children because they are willing to pray for 
it. Do not whip them, for I no longer wish them to pray 
for water, and am content that it rain when God wills it." 
Aviles answered that God would bestow it the more 
readily if he turned Christian himself. Then the poor 
Indian, in desperation, went directly to the cross, which 
Aviles had caused to be erected on his previous visit ; 
kneeling down before it, he embraced it, and turning to 
the Spaniard exclaimed: "Behold, I am a Christian." 
"This occurred at two o'clock in the afternoon," con- 
tinues Barrientos. ' ' Half an hour later it began to thunder 



250 The Spanish Settlements 

and lighten and to rain with such violence that it did 
not cease for twenty-four hours, and extended in a 
circuit of five leagues." ' Then the Indians, astoun- 
ded at the prodigy, came to the house where Aviles 
was lodged, and casting themselves at his feet, begged 
him to leave some Christians with them. The General 
responded by ordering his nephew, Alonzo Menendez 
Marques, with four other Spaniards, to remain among 
them. 

If remorse had played its part in the kindly treatment 
which Aviles had extended to the Frenchmen captured 
near Cape Canaveral after the Matanzas massacre, either 
the Adelantado felt that his misdeeds had been expiated 
when he released them on his arrival in Cuba, or again 
the force of circumstances proved stronger than his sense 
of mercy. His nephew Alonzo and his companions, who 
had remained as hostages at Guale during his absence 
at Santa Elena, informed him on his return that the 
unfortunate Lutheran interpreter was endeavouring to 
arouse the Indians, telling them that these Spanish 
Christians were of no account, and spitting upon the 
cross whenever they assembled to adore it, whereupon 
Aviles determined to be rid of him without arousing the 
suspicions of the natives. He caused the Frenchman 
Rufin to induce his countryman to accompany some 
Guale Indians who were going to Santa Elena in their 
canoe, by praising the liberality of Las Alas, who would 
reward him with many presents. The poor fellow, who 
had escaped the untutored wiles of the savages, readily 
fell into the trap set for him by the Christians and left 
with the Indians. Aviles then wrote Las Alas to murder 
him secretly, but to show much regret at his disap- 
pearance and to inform the Indians, that, being a false 
Christian, he had escaped to the forest in the hope of 
finding a French ship in which to return to his own 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. iii. 



Expeditions to Guale 251 

country. His orders were obeyed and the Frenchman 
was garroted.' 

Aviles, who had now carried out his plan at Santa 
Elena, returned to San Mateo by the channel between 
the islands and the coast, meeting many Indians on his 
way, who came down to the shore and besought him to 
give them crosses, as they were all much astounded at the 
report of the rain which had fallen in Guale. He reached 
the settlement on the 15th of May, and although he 
found it in good condition the war with the natives was 
still in progress. The Indians in the neighbourhood of 
the two forts were 

"an ill set and traitorous," says Barrientos, "for they make 
friends with the Christians for their own interest on account 
of the advantage they can derive from them. They go to the 
forts, and if they are not given food and clothing, and iron 
hatchets and gifts they depart in great anger, begin a war and 
kill all the Christians they can find." ^ 

Those about St. Augustine had waited for a favourable 
wind, and, attacking the fort at night, had set fire to the 
thatched roof of the magazine with their fire arrows.^ 
The flames communicating with the powder had de- 
stroyed all of its valuable contents including the flags 
and banners captured from the French as well as those 
belonging to the Spaniards. Many soldiers had been 
killed, and the sentinels shot down at night. 

The soldiers found the Timuquanans a difificult foe to 
contend with, and more than a match for their cumbrous 
arms, owing to their great agility and the rapidity of their 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 189-215; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antigiias Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 102-111. Meras states 
that the Frenchman was addicted to a crime against nature very prevalent 
among the Indians. Barrientos merely hints at it. 

^ Barrientos in ibid., p. 113. 

3 Le Moyne in Plate XXXI. of his Eicones show^s this mode of attack. 



252 The Spanish Settlements 

movements. While the soldier was loading his arquebus, 
they ran into the grasses and thickets, and dropped on 
the ground when they saw the flash. Crawling swiftly 
through the underbrush and grasses, they rose at another 
spot than that at which the Spaniard had aimed, and 
closing upon him delivered another volley of four or five 
arrows in the time which he took to load. They went 
about in small skirmishing parties, and fought in ambus- 
cade, shooting the men who went to gather sea-food and 
dwarf palmettos, piercing their clothes and coats of mail. 
When the Spaniards pursued them they ran to the 
streams and marshes, threw themselves into the water, 
and, being naked and swimming like fish, crossed to the 
opposite shore, bearing their bows and arrows aloft in one 
hand to keep them dry ; there they would stand shouting 
and mocking at the Spaniards, and when the latter with- 
drew, they swam back, dogging their steps and shooting 
at them from the underbrush. The Spaniards found that 
to hold them in check it was necessary to burn their 
villages, seize their canoes, cut down their plantations, 
and destroy their fishways. 

Aviles, seriously disturbed at the loss of the store- 
house, went directly to the relief of his brother at St. 
Augustine, taking with him a small party, what supplies 
the scant store at San Mateo could afford, and Villarroel, 
who had fallen ill in consequence of the mental strain to 
which he had been subjected, and whom he wished to 
send to Havana. Vasco Zaval was left in charge. May 
1 8th he arrived at the fort, and after advising with his 
captains, he decided to build a new one at the entrance 
of the bar, where it could protect the harbour from the 
attack of hostile vessels and afford a better defence 
against the Indians.' The site was marked out the fol- 

' The second site of St. Augustine. Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas 
Rclaciones de la Floi'ida, p. 114, says: " Entrando En consejo Con los 
capitanes salio acordado que se mudase El fuerte de alii y se fundase A la 



Expeditions to Guale 253 

lowing day, and for the second time the long-suffering 
colonists set to work with a will upon its construction. 
From three o'clock in the morning until nine, and again 
from two in the afternoon until seven in the evening, one 
hundred and sixty persons toiled at its completion, in 
constant fear of an Indian attack, and in ten days they 
had it finished, with the guns in position. As no sup- 
plies had reached the settlers for a long season, and the 
chronic condition of hunger and want was again rife, the 
General determined to return to Havana for succour, tak- 
ing with him a hundred soldiers, whom he had enlisted 
in Cuba from the fleet of New Spain under agreement to 
remain with him until May. He left but seventy rations 
at St. Augustine to maintain the garrison until help 
should arrive. 

Early in June he set out for Havana, and the very day 
of his departure he met one of his own supply ships, with 
Diego de Amaya aboard, caught in a perilous situation on 

entrada de la barra, porq alii los indios no les podian hacer tanto malo y 
<iesde alii podian defender q no entrasen nauios de Enemigos." Subse- 
quent to the arrival of Arciniega at St. Augustine another change was 
made : " Fuese el Adelantado, con todos los capitanes . . . e con 
acuerdo e parecer de todos . . . seiialaron el sitio, lugar e compas 
donde se habian de fortificar, que era en el mesmo lugar que el Adelantado 
estaba fortificado ; mas porque la mar le iba comiendo el fuerte, retira- 
ronse mas a tierra, tomando el un caballero del fuerte que estaba hecho, 
para el que se habia de hacer." Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 
245. The " Discurso sobre la poblacion de la costa de la Florida e incon- 
vinientes que se ofrecieron para su fortificacion y defensa " (MS. Direc. 
de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv., Doc. No. 47, fol. 4, 1577- 
15S0) says : " Sancto Agustin, donde primero estubo el Fuerte y gente, es 
una Islilla pequeiia, y Sancto Agustin, donde agora esta el Fuerte y gente, 
es otra que esta junto a la primera, donde solia estar primero el Fuerte, y 
esta donde agora esta es casi Ysla, por que esta rodeada de agua, aunque 
tiene por una parte descubierto por donde pueden pasar a la Tierra Firme, 
esta en 29 grades y medio : tiene de largo 364 leguas y de ancho muy 
poco, que es angosta hasta media legua, y por algunas partes menos. Cubre 
la Mar cada aiio mucha parte de esta tierra," etc. It should be borne in 
mind that "isla" does not necessarily mean an island, but may also indi- 
cate a promontory, as is the case in this instance. 



254 The Spanish Settlements 

the bar. He delayed his sailing long enough to rescue it 
and wrote the camp master at St. Augustine to distribute 
the provisions between the forts, sending a boat-load to 
Las Alas at San Felipe; and with that decision of char- 
acter which he was wont to exert when the emergency 
called for it, he ordered that the vessel which had brought 
the succour be sunk in order that the garrison suffer no 
temptation to desert. The camp master at St. Augustine 
was then directed to go to San Mateo and take charge 
there. 

The question of provisions being thus happily solved 
for the time being, Aviles re-embarked and reached 
Havana in eight days with two of his vessels, the third 
being carried to Santo Domingo by stress of weather. 
In Havana he found his brother-in-law, Solis de Meras, 
who had returned with the fleet from New Spain, bring- 
ing with him four Dominican friars, a captain, and eight 
soldiers, and only three thousand ducats borrowed from 
the Audiencia of Mexico. Attempts to obtain further 
assistance from the Governor were renewed, but Osorio 
was still obdurate, and Aviles was compelled to fall back 
upon his lieutenant, the treasurer Hinestrosa, who hav- 
ing already exhausted his personal means, promised to 
secure from his friends the money needed to assist the 
Florida forts. Dona Antonia, his Indian bride, had 
quickly acquired some Christian instruction, but the 
death of all but two of her companions, and the pro- 
longed absence of her Spanish lover, for whom she had 
acquired a strong attachment, had greatly depressed her 
spirits. Meras tells us a touching story of her affection 
and of the harmless subterfuge by which the Adelantado 
contrived to avoid the renewal of his relations with her.' 
The death of Doiia Antonia's companions had placed 
Aviles under the necessity of returning her to her people, 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 215, 232 ; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Rclaciones de la Florida, pp. 111-116. 



Expeditions to Guale 255 

as he feared that in the event of her death the Caloosas 
would attribute it to the ill-treatment of the Spaniards. 
So he made a rapid expedition to San Antonio, returned 
Dona Antonia and her two companions to Carlos, and in 
ten days was back again in Havana, bringing with him 
the heir and cousin of the chieftain, who was subse- 
quently baptised under the name of Don Pedro, and 
some additional white slaves whom he had rescued. 

While purchasing supplies with five hundred ducats 
which he had obtained by pledging some of his wardrobe, 
a vessel arrived from Spain with the encouraging news 
that Sancho de Arciniega, who had left early in May, had 
reached Florida at the end of June ' with a large squadron 
sent to the assistance of the colony. Aviles made but a 
brief stay at Havana, and by the 8th of July was back 
again at San Mateo, sailing part of the way in company 
with the return fleet which carried Meras with dispatches 
to Spain." During his absence the Indians had slain two 
of his captains: the Asturian, Martin Ochoa, who had led 
in the attack on Fort Caroline, and Diego de Hevia, a 
relative of the Adelantado, besides others of his soldiers 
who had shared in the attack. But Arciniega was an- 
chored at St. Augustine, where he had arr^Ved on the 
anniversary of Aviles's departure from Cadiz,' with a fleet 
of seventeen ships, fifteen hundred men, and five hundred 

' " Diligencias hechas en Sevilla con motive de la venida de Esteban de 
las Alas, de la Florida" (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 581, 585) 
gives the dates of April and April 2nd ; but Fourquevaux, who makes various 
references to Arciniega in his correspondence (see letter of Jan. 22, 1566, 
Depeches, p. 48 ; Feb. 4, p. 50 ; Feb. 11, p. 52 ; Feb. 22, p. 61, and March 
29, p. 64), says in his letter to Catherine of April 30, 1566 {ibid,, p. 82), 
that the fleet was still lying at anchor at San Lucar. Barcia, Ensayo, (Aiio 
MDLXVI., p. 114), says it reached St. Augustine at the end of June. 

^ Meras (in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 223-235), who has every 
reason to be correct, says he left Havana July ist. Barrientos (in Garcia, 
Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Flo7-ida, pp. 115-118) says June ist. 

^Aviles to a Jesuit friend, Oct. 15, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., 
p. 155- 



256 The Spanish Settlements 

sailors, and bountiful supplies for the starving colonists. 
Arciniega had sent Captain Juan Pardo in three vessels 
with three hundred men to the relief of San Felipe, and 
Captain Aguirre with two hundred and fifty men to 
that of San Mateo. Aviles found Aguirre encamped 
without the fort, there having been some friction be- 
tween him and Zaval, who was in command. Having re- 
stored peace between them, Menendez departed foi' St. 
Augustine. 

The meeting with Arciniega was a joyful one for the 
sorely tried Adelantado, and Arciniega handed over to 
him the royal dispatches, including Philip's letter of May 
12, 1566, in which that monarch expressed his approval 
of the punishment meted out to the "Lutheran cor- 
sairs." ' Avil6s then visited a company of fourteen 
women, who had come over with the fleet, and five 
priests to whom he assigned as vicar his chaplain Men- 
doza. Three days later, in council with his captains,'' he 
decided that seven hundred and fifty soldiers should be 
distributed between the three forts of St. Augustine, San 
Mateo, and San Felipe, that the remainder should depart 
in eight of the vessels to search for pirates and corsairs in 
the neighbourhood of Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, 
and that the balance of the fleet should return with 
Arciniega to Spain. He himself prepared to visit San 
Mateo, where he proposed to ascend the St, John's, and 
to proceed from there to Quale and the fort at Santa 
Elena, to ascertain what had become of Juan Pardo, of 
whose arrival he had as yet received no notification.' 

Before his departure the fort at St. Augustine was re- 
moved a little inland, for the sea was beginning to eat it 

' Barcia, Eiisayo, Aiio MDLXVI., p. 115. 

^ Aviles had been directed by royal cedula of September, 1565, to advise 
with Arciniega in all matters relating to land and sea. Ruidiaz, La 
Florida, tomo ii., p. 360. 

^Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 235-248; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 11S-122. 



Expeditions to Guale 257 

away,* and finally he took his departure for San Mateo. 
On his arrival he again placed Villarroel in command, with 
Captain Aguirre and most of the older soldiers in charge, 
then he started on an exploring expedition up the St. 
Jojiiils with a company of one hundred soldiers in three 
vessels. Twenty leagues up the river he landed, and 
marching five leagues through a fertile country paid a 
visit to the village of Outina. Within a league of the 
village he sent forward six of his soldiers, bearing a present 
to the chief, to inform him of his visit. Outina sent him 
back word, begging him to bring but twenty men in his 
company and to pray God to send rain upon his harvests, 
as none had fallen for a long time. Much amused at his 
request, Aviles entered the village with only six men, and 
on his arrival the rain began to fall. The house of the 
chief was found to be deserted, for a superstitious terror 
had driven the savage in hiding to the forest, from which 
he sent word that he was in great fear of a man who was 
so powerful with God, and begged Aviles to depart in 
peace, as he was already a friend of the Spaniards. The 
Adelantado, who was anxious to meet him, as he was re- 
puted to be intelligent and powerful, sent a messenger to 
urge him to return ; but the chief replied that Aviles with 
his twenty soldiers and the assistance of God as his 
cacique was more powerful than himself with a thousand 
warriors, and again besought him to depart, and the Gen- 
eral reluctantly complied with his request, after informing 
Outina that he was ascending the river, and that unless 
the cacique ordered his subject villages to receive him 
without fear, he would burn down their towns and de- 
stroy their canoes and fishways. 

Returning to his boats, Aviles on the following day 
sent the largest of them back to San Mateo with fifty 
men, and continued his expedition up the river. He 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida^ tomo i., p. 245, and see note, p. 252, in 

this volume. 
»*.— 17. 



258 The Spanish Settlements 

observed that at a distance of forty leagues the tide was 
still perceptible. At a distance of fifty leagues he came 
upon the village of Macoya, an ally of Saturiba, two leagues 
beyond the highest point reached by the French.' He 
found the village deserted by the inhabitants, and Macoya 
sent him a message similar to that he had received from 
Outina, asking him to abandon the expedition, as his sub- 
jects farther up the river were angry at the approach of 
the Spaniards. But Aviles disregarded his request, and, 
failing to obtain any Indian guides, continued his ad- 
vance. A league farther on, where the river began to 
narrow, he found it barred with stakes and the na- 
tives assembling in a threatening attitude along the 
banks. Breaking through the obstacles in the river he 
proceeded. 

The river had now become so narrow that its width did 
not exceed the length of two pikes. The soldiers were 
exposed to attack from the banks, their powder and 
arquebuses were damp owing to the rain, and the General 
determined to return. The Indian guide who accom- 
panied him informed Aviles that twenty leagues farther 
up dwelt a chief of the Ays named Perucho, where the 
river narrowed for a distance of thirty leagues and then 
opened into a great lake called Maymi, which emptied 
into the sea to the west in the country of Carlos, and to 
the east at Tegesta at the head of the Florida Keys, and 
that many streams flowed into it. Seven or eight leagues 
down the river and but twelve leagues from St. Augus- 
tine by land he visited Carabay,'^ a subject chief of Outina. 
Farther down Outina himself came out to meet him, with 
whom Aviles left six of his soldiers, and he finally reached 
San Mateo, having spent twelve days in his voyage. The 
war with Saturiba was still in progress, owing in part to 
the want of discipline among the soldiers, who persisted 

' In the neighbourhood of Lake George. 
* In the neighbourhood of Picolata(?). 



Expeditions to Guale 259 

in pillaging his villages, but otherwise the place was in a 
satisfactory condition/ 

Aviles, who, during his winter in Havana had been 
assured by Father Andres de Urdaneta ^ of the exist- 
ence of a passage through Florida opening into the Pa- 
cific, had not forgotten his design to establish a post 
at the Bay of Santa Maria (Chesapeake Bay) with its- 
promise of a way to China and to Newfoundland, 
and during his two-days' stay at San Mateo he sent a 
captain with thirty soldiers and two Dominican friars to 
form a settlement there. With them went an Indian 
named Don Luis de Velasco, brother of a chief of that 
region. Spanish navigators, in company, perhaps, with 
some Dominican monks, had visited the country in 1559 
or 1560 and carried him to Mexico, where the viceroy, 
Don Luis de Velasco, caused him to be baptised and gave 
him his name. But the expedition was doomed to 
failure. The two monks were from Peru and New 
Spain, possibly of those Meras had brought with him 
to Havana from the latter country. They had gone 
through some of the hardships and privations of the 
Florida colony, and were not of the stuff of which mar- 
tyrs are made. In conspiracy with the soldiers they won 
over the pilot to their plan, drew up a statement that 
they had been deterred from reaching the Bay of Santa 
Maria owing to bad weather, and sailed for Spain. 
Reaching Seville they added their voice to the evil re- 
ports concerning Florida which San Vincente and his 
companions had already spread abroad by letters and 
other channels, and defamed both the King and Aviles 
because they wished to conquer and settle it.^ 

'Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 248-257; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 122-126. 

* Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
151- 

* Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 258; Barrientos in Garcia, 
Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 126. Barcia, Ensayo, (Ano 



26o The Spanish Settlements 

The little garrison of San Felipe at Santa Elena had 
not escaped the blight which had fallen upon the other 
settlements. The arrival of the ship which Aviles had 
sent to its assistance early in June, before his last visit to 
Havana, had been attended with the usual disturbances. 
Before her cargo could be discharged, sixty of the sol- 
diers had risen, and set sail in her for Havana. In the 
Bahama passage a storm had driven her into a harbour at 
the head of the Florida Keys, in the vicinity of an Indian 
settlement called Tegesta ' by the Spaniards, and ruled 
by a chief of the same name. The village, which was 
situated on a stream of sweet water, probably the Miami 
River, flowing into Biscayne Bay, was at that time gov- 
erned by a chief closely related to Carlos and his sister, 
Dona Antonia. 

The people of Tegesta were fishermen, and, like all 
the natives along the coast, passed the winter season 
chasing the whale, says Velasco. An Indian fully painted 
approached the whale in his canoe, and throwing a rope 
around it, passed through its nostrils one of three pointed 
stakes which he carried in his belt, and thus prevented 
it from diving; then it was attacked and killed and 
drawn upon the beach. There its head was opened by 
the first man to attack it and two special bones were 
extracted, which were placed in the case in which the 
bones of the dead were kept, and they were worshipped. 
On the death of a chief, his large bones were removed 
and placed in a great box in his hut, where the natives 

MDLXVI., p. 119), says that the Dominicans had taken the Indian from 
the province of Axacan [Chesapeake Bay] to Mexico, and adds the details 
given in the text. Both Meras {ibid.) and Barrientos {ibid.) say Don Luis had 
been six years with Aviles. Sacchini {HistoricB Societatis yesu. Pars iertia, 
Romffi, MDCIL., p. 323), writing of the Jesuit expedition of 1570 to these 
parts, says that Don Luis had been carried away eleven years before by 
Spanish navigators. This would make the date of the expedition 1559 to 

1560. It will be remembered that Villafaiie was in that neighbourhood in 

1 56 1. Sacchini calls the Indian chief of the region Regulus. 
' See Appendix V, Tegesta. 



Expeditions to Guale 261 

came to worship them, and the smaller bones were buried 
with the body,' Like his relative, Carlos, it had been the 
custom of the chief of Tegesta to kill all the Christians 
cast away on his coast. But when the friendly relations 
which the Spaniards had established with the Caloosas 
were reported to him, he followed the example of 
his relative. He received the fugitives with good will, 
sent them a deputation, and informed them of a neigh- 
bouring village where twenty Christians were living, de- 
serters from San Mateo at the time of the mutiny. But, 
a fair wind having arisen, the ship set sail without them, 
as they were dwelling in peace with the Indians. 

When Juan Pardo arrived at San Felipe with his rein- 
forcements, he found that twenty soldiers had deserted 
to the interior, and that only twenty-five remained 
in the fort, that their supplies were entirely exhausted, 
and that they were dependent for their existence upon 
the food which the natives brought them, Avil6s, after 
two days spent in San Mateo, left for San Felipe, where 
he arrived about the 20th of August. Having ordered 
matters at the fort, he appointed Las Alas his lieutenant 
in Crista and Guale. The island on which stood Fort 
San Felipe was in many ways unsuitable for cultivation, 
at least by the Spanish farmers who had settled it and 
who were still inexperienced in the climatic and other 
conditions of the region. Aside from the scanty supplies 
obtained from the Indians they as well as the garrison 
were dependent for their subsistence upon the chance 
arrival of an occasional ship from St. Augustine and from 
San Mateo, and Avil^s must have found them in a very 
miserable condition, for he determined to reduce their 
number, and directed Pardo to make an excursion into the 
interior with a company of one hundred and fifty soldiers, 
who were to be quartered upon the natives at intervals 

' Dos breves memorias sobre las costumbres de los yndios de la Florida, 
MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 135, caj. 7, leg. 8, 



262 The Spanish Settlements 

along the route.' Leaving Santa Elena by the end of 
August/ he next paid a visit to Guale, where he learned 
of the death of his nephew, Alonzo Marques; and found 
that the Indians had made rapid progress in learning the 
faith, were reverently adoring the cross, and could already 
repeat the Christian doctrine in chorus. He remained 
at Guale eight days and, leaving a captain and thirty sol- 
diers stationed there, was back again at San Mateo by the 
20th of September.* 

During his first visit to Cuba he had been deterred from 
proceeding against the corsairs and freebooters which in- 
fested the neighbouring seas, by the rumour of French 
fleets which might jeopardise all of the work which he 
had so laboriously accomplished. Hastening his return 
to Florida, he had now completed the inspection of the 
various posts which he had established, and felt that it 
was high time to fulfil the commission with which he had 
been entrusted by the King of purging the sea of pirates. 
Part of Arciniega's fleet had already returned to Spain, 
but the vessels with which he was to undertake the ex- 
pedition against the sea robbers in defence of Puerto Rico 
and the neighbouring islands were awaiting him in the 
harbour of St. Augustine. After a stay of only two days 
at San Mateo, he now bent his steps in that direction, in- 
tent upon fulfilling the commands of his King, taking 
Villarroel along with him. During his absence another 
mutiny had broken out among the new levies headed by 
a captain who had come over in the fleet with Arciniega, 
which the camp master quelled with drastic measures, 
hanging three of the soldiers, and throwing the ringleader 
and other of his companions into prison. Aviles, with 

' Relacion de las cosas que han pasado en la Florida tocantes al sen'icio 
de Dios y del Rey. Vino con carta de Juan Mendez, 6 de Abril, 1584, MS. 
Arch. Gen. de Indias, Sevilla, est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 16, p. 2. 

* Meras in Ruidlaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 262. 

* Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 258-263, 281, 282; Barrientos in Garcia, 
Dos Antiguas Re lactones de la Florida, pp. 126-128. 



Expeditions to Guale 263 

tactful leniency, released the prisoners, admonished the 
captain, and pointed out to the camp master that, owing 
to the unaccustomed conditions to which the soldiers 
were subjected, there were times when it was necessary 
to wink at certain infractions of discipline in order not to 
arouse the entire colony. 

Before his departure Aviles directed Francisco de Rey- 
noso to visit Carlos with a company of thirty soldiers, at 
whose village he was to erect a fort and to discover a 
waterway to Lake Maymi, through which communica- 
tion could be established with San Mateo and St. Augus- 
tine. He left his brother Bartolom6 in charge of the 
settlement at St. Augustine, which consisted of only 
twenty-five soldiers under Captains Miguel Henriquez 
and Pedro de Andrada, with fifty married men and their 
families, and set sail on the 20th of October in pursuit of 
the corsairs.' It is not our intention to follow the Ade- 
lantado in this part of his career, except in so far as it 
bears upon the history of his Florida enterprise. At 
Puerto Rico his camp master, who had accompanied him 
on the expedition, learned of the sailing, September 25, 
1566, of the French squadron, one division of which, 
under Montluc, had already sacked the island of Madeira, 
while the balance of it had left for an unknown destination. 
In view of this report it was determined, on consultation 
with the royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo, that Aviles 
should at once proceed to put the neighbouring islands 
in a state of defence and return shortly to Florida." 

■ Barrientos in Garcia, ibid., p. 132 ; Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomo i., p. 277 ; Aviles to Philip II., Nov. 29, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 
160. Meras (in ibid., tomo i., p. 264) says that Aviles was ready to sail 
by the end of September, started on the 20th of October, was detained by 
contrary winds, and finally left Nov. 5th. 

^ Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 264-269; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 128, 129. Both Meras 
and Barrientos give Oct. 6, 1566, as the date of the sacking of Madeira. 
October i8th the news of it reached Philip II. Fourquevaux to the King, 
Nov. 2, 1566, Depeches, p. 136. 



CHAPTER IV 

FATHER MARTINEZ AND HIS COMPANIONS 

AVILES had been deeply moved at the great need 
there was for Christian instruction among the savage 
races with which he had come in contact, and he had ob- 
served with some particularity, for a soldier, the various 
phases of their religion. Writing to a Jesuit friend upon 
whom he was urging the importance of their conversion 
he said : 

" Their ceremonies consist for the most part in the worship 
of the sun and moon, and idols of dead game, and other ani- 
mals. And every year they celebrate three or four festivals in 
their honour, in which they worship the sun and go three days 
without food, drink or sleep, which are their fasts. And he 
who is weak and cannot endure it, they consider a bad Indian 
and the noble sort become enraged. And he who can best 
endure these trials, is held most worthy and is treated with 
more courtesy." ^ 

Among the Caloosas and at Guale he had found the 
practice of human sacrifice in existence, and his heart 
was sore within him at their idolatries. 

He had done all that lay in his power to turn the natives 
to the faith. "I have already given them crosses, which 
they worship, and I have given them some lads and sol- 

' Aviles to a Jesuit friend, Oct. 15, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., 
p. 156. 

264 



Father Martinez and his Companions 265 

diers to instruct them in the Christian doctrine," he con- 
tinues, "but it is only a loss of time to attempt to plant 
the Holy Gospel in this country by the means of sol- 
diers." This instruction was brief and conveyed through 
an interpreter, and it is highly probable that the Guale 
Indians, who had so glibly chanted the prayers and creed, 
recited them in Latin and in as complete ignorance of 
their significance as were the birds and the wild beasts 
of their forests. His attempt at securing the services of 
competent instructors had proved a failure. Chaplain 
Mendoza has told us how he had been deserted by his 
companions on his arrival at Puerto Rico.' It seems 
probable that some, at least, of the priests who accom- 
panied Las Alas had been lured from their duty by the 
temptations which the chaplain had so bravely overcome, 
and the temper of the Dominican monks whom Merasj 
had brought with him had not been that of Fray Luisl 
Cancer. The ministrations of Mendoza and of the priests 
who had accompanied Arciniega were needed among his 
own people, dispersed as they were along the coast of 
the great continent, and there was much need of men 
whose training was such that they could devote them- 
selves exclusively to the care of the natives, and acquire 
their language. 

The Reformation had called into existence an organisa- 
tion having the special mission of combating its heresies 
and re-establishing the supremacy of the Holy See. Al- 
though pre-eminently designed for intellectual contests 
with the element which had worked such turmoil in the 
Church, not a few of the foremost men in its ranks had 
embraced with pious ardour the vocation of missionaries, 
and it would appear that its military organisation and 
discipline had especially appealed to Avil6s, himself a 
Spaniard and a soldier like its great founder. He had 
promised the Indians that teachers should be sent them,l 

' " Relacion" in ibid., tomo ii., p. 437. See p. 152, in this volume. 



266 The Spanish Settlements 

and was much disappointed that no member of the So- 
ciety of Jesus nor of any other reHgious order had accom- 
panied Arciniega's fleet.' 

The mission of Fray Luis Cancer and the zealous pre- 
parations of Fray Domingo de la Anunciacion for the 
expedition of De Luna, both of them missions inspired 
by Las Casas and undertaken without the advice of the 
Provincial Chapter of the Order in Mexico, had awakened 
some symptoms of jealousy in the mind of its Provincial, 
Fray Domingo de Santa Maria, who had written Philip, 
pointing out the importance of an appeal to the judgment 
and experience of the Chapter in such enterprises.^ But 
the King had sufficient confidence in his general to over- 
ride the advice of the Dominican Provincial, and he had 
anticipated the wishes of the Adelantado in respect to 
Jesuit missionaries. May 3, 1566, scarcely five months 
after the successful termination of the campaign against 
the French heretics in Florida, he addressed a letter to 
Francisco Borgia, Duke of Gandia, at that time third 
General of the Society of Jesus, directing him to ap- 
point twenty-four members of the Company as mission- 
aries in such parts of the Indies as the Royal Council 
should designate.' In compliance with the royal orders, 
Borgia selected two Fathers, named Pedro Martinez and 
Juan Rogel, and a lay brother, Francisco de Villareal, 
who were appointed to go to Florida. As this was 
the first Jesuit mission to the West Indies,^ its members 
command our interest. 

' Aviles to a Jesuit friend, Oct. 15, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 157. 

^ Fray Domingo de Santa Maria to Philip II,, June 25, 1585, Cartas de 
Indias, Madrid, 1877, p. 134. 

* Vida del P. Francisco de Borja . . . por el P. Pedro de Ribade- 
neyra, Madrid, 1592, lib, iii,, cap. 6, p. 140b, gives the letter in full. 

*/fisioria de los Trivmphos de nvestra santa fee entre Gentes las mas 
iarbaras y fieras del nuevo Or be , , . por el Padre Andres Perez de 
Ribas. Madrid, 1645, P- 744- Epist. P. Nadal in Monumenta Historica 
Societatis yesu, vol. iii., p. 41 1. 



Father Martinez and his Companions 267 

Father Martinez was an Aragonese, born in 1533,* in 
Celda, a suburb of Teruel, famous for the legend of its 
two lovers. His family was evidently in easy circum- 
stances, for he was sent to the University of the City 
of Valencia to study the humanities and theology; but 
being of a turbulent disposition he spent more of his time 
in the fencing school than with Aristotle and St. Thomas 
on the benches of the lecture hall. With his boon com- 
panions he wandered about, seeking for opportunities to 
display his skill with the rapier, the sword, and the target, 
and there was hardly a duel in the town in which he did 
not take part, either as principal or second. This did 
not tend to develop his respect for the Jesuits, whom it 
was his habit to mock and ridicule. 

Going to the college one day, in company with three 
or four of his companions in order to amuse himself for a 
while at the expense of the Fathers, he observed to his 
friends, "One of us is going to become a Teatin," re- 
ferring to an Order afifiliated to the Augustinians and 
given to the strictest observance of the rules of the 
mendicant friars. At this each of them, with a laugh, 
answered in turn, "Not I at least." On reaching the 
college he sat down at the entrance, and the porter 
courteously enquired of him what he wished, to which he 
replied, "Only to sit here a little while." Meanwhile 
he watched attentively the passing of the black-coated 
Fathers and of the lay brethren on their daily rounds 
that he might discover something at which to raise a 
laugh. 

" But he was laid hold of by God by that very means," says 

' Maries illustres et gesia eorum de Societate yesu qui in odium fidei 

. . ab ethnicis hareticis vel aliis . . . necati sunt . autore 

Philippe Alegambe. Romae, 1657, p. 44. P. Francisco Javier Alegre in 

his Historia de la Compania de "Jesus eft Nueva Espafia (Mexico, 1842, 

4omo i., p. 7) says Father Martinez was born October 15, 1523. 



268 The Spanish Settlements 

Father Nieremberg, who relates the incident.' " For he be- 
held so much modesty, so much devotion and sedateness in 
their speech and actions, that he began to think upon renounc- 
ing the world and joining the Order of which he was before 
accustomed to make sport, and God having truly called him, 
he resolved to seek the Company. Whereupon he called the 
Superior, Father Geronimo Nadel, and asked to be received 
at once." 

But he had to deal with a man versed in the intricate 
mysteries of the human heart, and the Superior, seeing 
how emotional was the nature of the lad, answered that 
he would gladly admit him after he had considered the 
matter for eight days. 

On receiving this answer Martinez departed. Casting 
aside for the while the memory of the vocation he had so 
lightly wished to assume, he returned to his former mode 
of life, and within the week attended a duel where he was 
obliged to wait an hour and a half for the arrival of his 
adversaries. But under this semblance of trifling lay the 
strong sense of honour, peculiar to his race ; and the failure 
of his antagonists to keep their appointment, says one of 
his Jesuit biographers, recalled to him the engagement 
upon which he had himself entered with the Superior. 
At the end of eight days, in order not to prove false to 
his word, he returned to the college and in 1553 was 
finally admitted into the Society. 

The same ardour which he had previously expended in 
his amusements was now addressed to penance and mortir 
fication. Clothed in a hair shirt he worked for hours in 
the garden, like a common labourer, and he scourged 
himself with such severity "that it was found necessary 
to stay his hand and give him a clock in order that he 

' Vidas exemplares y venerables memorias de alguiios claros varones de la 
Campania de Jesus , . . por Padre Eusebio Nieremberg, Madrid, 
164 3-1647, tomo iv. , p. 607, 



Father Martinez and his Companions 269 

might not exceed half an hour of discipline." ' From 
Valencia he was sent to pursue his studies at the college 
of Gandia, and going to the town of Oliva one day with 
a brother to stop a bull fight, the Duke, learning of his 
purpose, forbade the fight. 

In 1558 Martin de Cordova, Count of Alcaudete, and 
commander of the army recruited in Andalusia'' to fight 
against the African Moors, asked Francisco Borgia for 
Jesuits to accompany him, and Fathers Martinez, Pedro 
Domenec, and a lay brother, Juan Gutierrez, were de- 
tailed for the purpose. On their arrival at Carthagena, 
from which they were to sail for Oran, the Jesuits em- 
barked on a transport in company with eight hundred 
soldiers, and with no other food than putrid bread and 
water so corrupt that the smell of it could hardly be 
borne. On reaching Oran they were ordered to attend 
in the hospital, although their hearts burned to go to the 
front with the army that was to attack Montagan. After 
the disastrous defeat suffered by Alcaudete, in which he 
was slain, and his son with a great part of the army taken 
prisoner, the Fathers returned to Spain, where masses 
had already been said for them as if they were dead men. 

Father Martinez went to reside in the profess house 
at Toledo, where he was actively employed in preaching 
and hearing confessions, and where he still continued 
to discipline himself every night for half an hour. From 
Toledo he went to Cuenca, where he preached his last 
Lenten sermons in Spain, and from there to Alcala, 
where he asked permission to cook for the community 
and "served in the kitchen with the greatest edification 
for three or four months." ^ It was from there that he 

' Nieremberg, tomo iv., p. 608. 

^ Mariana, Hisioria General de Espana. Continuacion de la Historia 
General de Espana . . . por D. Vicente Romero, Madrid, 1794, tomo 
ii., p. 196. 

^Nieremberg, tomo iv., p. 609. 



270 The Spanish Settlements 

received his call to go to Florida. Nieremberg tells us 
that while waiting in Seville to embark on the long 
journey Father Martinez had a premonition of his im- 
pending fate, and exclaimed one day to Fray Lobo, a 
distinguished Franciscan, "Oh! Father Lobo, how I long 
to pour out my blood at the hands of the savages, and 
wash those Florida shores in defence of the faith! " ' 

Father Juan Rogel, who was a native of Pamplona, a 
Licentiate of Arts, and Bachelor of Medicine, had been 
received into the Order at the College of Valencia in 
April, 1554, and like Father Martinez, had pursued his 
subsequent studies at Gandia, where he applied himself 
to theology. Nothing is known of the previous history 
of lay-brother Francisco de Villareal, but his subsequent 
service in Florida shows him to have been no unworthy 
companion of the two Fathers. Such, then, were the 
men who were to begin the ministrations of the Jesuits 
in the New World, labours destined to culminate in the 
famous missions of Paraguay, of Canada, and of Califor- 
nia, with its stirring and tragic history. 

July 28, 1566, the three Jesuits, provided by the King 
with all that was needed for their voyage, embarked at 
San Lucar de Barrameda aboard a Flemish hooker, and 
sailed in company with the squadron destined for New 
Spain, with the intention of proceeding to St. Augustine 
in response to the call of Aviles. The pilot, inexperi- 
enced in West Indian navigation, missed his way, but 
finally sighted the shores of the continent and coasted 
along it in search of the port. September 14th, he passed 
within two leagues of the harbour of St. Augustine 
without discovering it. The ship was observed from the 
fort and a rowboat was sent out to meet her; but a high 
sea was running at the time and the tide was contrary, 
so that the attempt had to be abandoned. Two days 
later Father Martinez determined to go ashore and en- 
■ Nieremberg, tomo iv., p. 609. 



Father Martinez and his Companions 271 

quire of the natives the direction of St. Augustine. Ac- 
companied by nine Flemings and a Spaniard by the 
name of Flores, they landed in the pinnace; but it was 
the season of storms which had proved so fateful to the 
fleet of Jean Ribaut the previous year, and the boat had 
scarcely touched the shore when a violent tempest arose 
and drove the ship to sea. The castaways, who had 
landed on the Florida coast somewhere above the mouth 
of the St. John's River, determined to await the arrival of 
a vessel or the return of their own ship to rescue them. 
They remained there ten days, not daring to penetrate 
the interior for fear of -the natives; but finally, impelled 
by hunger, they took to the boat and followed the 
coast-line in a southerly direction. During the journey 
they met with many Indians, who treated them with 
kindness, saying they were friends and brothers of the 
Spaniards.' 

At one of the places where they landed the Jesuit*" 
came upon a group of huts in a grove of pine trees, from 
which the owners were absent for the day. Pressed by 
hunger they searched the village and found in one of the 
huts a large fish, of which they took half, and Father 
Martinez left his cassock and a few beads and flowers with 
the remainder of the fish in payment. Elsewhere, in 
exchange for some fish. Father Martinez cut figures with 
his scissors out of a leaf of parchment, taken from a book 
he carried with him. At last they met with an old Indian 
and learned from him that the Spanish settlement lay to 
the south beyond three villages, each of which was situ- 
ated at the mouth of a river. 

On the 28th of September, after having passed the 
mouths of two of the rivers, the Jesuits were proceeding in 
search of the third, when they came upon a small island 

'Aviles to a Jesuit friend, Oct. 15, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii.„ 
p. 157 ; Alegambe, p. 44 et seq. 



2 72 The Spanish Settlements 

called Tacatacuru/ near the mouth of the St. John's, 
where they saw four Indians fishing. The Flemings 
sprang ashore, although Father Martinez was unwilling 
to land, whereupon one of the fishermen ran off and soon 
reappeared followed by a party of forty Indians armed 
with bows and arrows, subjects of Tacatacuru, one of 
the chiefs under Saturiba who was, as we know, at war 
with the Spaniards. Father Martinez, although alarmed 
at their approach, remained near the shore, unwilling to 
abandon his companions, whereupon twelve of the na- 
tives attacked the boat with great fury, seized him, the 
Spaniard, and three of the Flemings, and dragged them 
ashore. The Indian who had seized Flores attempted 
to drown him, but the Spaniard struck the savage a vio- 
lent blow, and succeeded in freeing himself. With three 
of the Flemings, two of whom were severely wounded, he 
made for the boat, which all four managed to regain. 

Father Martinez now knew that he was about to attain 
the martyrdom for which he had so earnestly expressed 
his desire while still in Seville. He knelt down as best 
he could and raised his hands to heaven. At the same 
moment an Indian struck him on the head with his club 
with such force that he immediately fell dead." Three 
others of his companions were also killed. The Flem- 
ings and Flores were found by the Spaniards the fol- 
lowing day anchored at the mouth of the St. John's, 
half dead with hunger. When Aviles learned from the 

' Barcia {Ensayo, Ano MDLXVI., p. 121) and Tanner {Societas Mili- 
tans, p. 446) both say it was the island of Tacatacuru [probably Cumberland 
Island]. 

' Aviles says his death occurred within a league of the fort of San Mateo 
(letter to a Jesuit friend, Oct. 15, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
158). Tanner (p. 447) gives Oct. 8, 1566, as the date of his^ death. Others 
September 24th and 28th, see Alegre, tomo i., p. g ; Barcia, Ensayo, Ano 
MDLXVI., p. 121. Gerard van Berghe Montanus gives a Latin epigram 
on Father Martinez in his Centuria Epigram??iatut>i iti Martires Societatis 
yesu. 



Father Martinez and his Companions 273 

survivors of the death of Father Martinez he was deeply 
moved. 

" Blessed be Our Lord for all things," he wrote, "and since 
the Divine Majesty allows and thus wills it, let us give him 
infinite thanks for all things; insomuch that it has pleased 
Our Lord, to visit us here with this affliction, who have de- 
served so little, by removing from our company so great and 
good a man as Father Martinez, of whom we Spaniards as 
well as the natives of the country in which we live stand in 
such great need." 

The bulls and faculties from the Pope which the Jesuit 
had brought with him were lost. 

It had been the intention of the Adelantado to send 
Father Rogel to Carlos with Reynoso after he acquired 
some experience in the language of the natives and had 
prepared vocabularies of their speech. Anxious for the 
fate of the hooker, aboard of which the Father and lay- 
brother Villareal had remained, and thinking it might have 
run for one of the neighbouring islands, he dispatched 
a servant of his with a vessel to call at Puerto Rico, Santo 
Domingo, and Havana in search of it. The hooker was 
probably found at the last-named port, where it ar- 
rived in safety on the 15th of December, having touched 
at Hispaniola on the way. After the Flemish vessel 
had been driven off the coast, the captain wished to re- 
turn and rescue the party which the storm had compelled 
him to abandon. But his Flemish crew obliged him 
to take the direction of Havana," where the Jesuits em- 
ployed their time in preaching to and confessing the citi- 
zens, while awaiting the arrival of Avil^s, who had sailed 
from St. Augustine on the 20th of October, going to the 
relief of the neighbouring islands. 

Shortly after the incident just related Avil^s wrote his 
Jesuit correspondent begging that the Company send 

' Alegre, tomo i., pp. 9, 10. 
**.— 18. 



2 74 The Spanish Settlements 

him more of its members "whom I will treat and serve 
and regale, as if they were the King himself," ' he adds, 
and he also urged Francisco de Toral, Bishop of Yuca- 
tan, to provide him with monks of his Order, but the 
Bishop had none he could send. Many of those in New 
Spain best fitted for the work had died, and Don Fran- 
cisco advised Avil^s to bring them from Spain." 

' Aviles to a Jesuit friend, Oct. 15, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., 
pp. 158, 159. 
* Francisco de Toral to Aviles, April 5, 1567, ibid., tomo ii., p. 296. 



CHAPTER V 

EXPEDITIONS OF PARDO AND BOYANO — RETURN OF 
AVILES TO SPAIN 

IN compliance with the orders of Avil^s, Juan Pardo 
left Santa Elena November i, 1566, with a party of 
twenty-five soldiers "to discover and conquer the interior 
country from there to Mexico!" ' The expedition was 
quite devoid of incident. He appears to have traversed 
the cypress lands in a north-easterly direction, and to 
have struck the Cambahee at a village called Guiomae, 
forty leagues distant from Santa Elena, where he ordered 
the construction of a log house for a Spanish outpost. 
From thence he turned west until he reached the Savan- 
nah River at Cufitatchiqui, which De Soto had visited 
twenty-five years before him. A few days later he was 
at another village called Ysa on a large river, possibly 
one of the northern branches of the Broad, and two days 
beyond he visited Juada, a village situated on a stream 
at the foot of the Alleghanies. 

The season was far advanced, and there was so much 
snow on the mountains that he could not proceed. He 
remained fifteen days at Juada, where he built a block- 

' " Relacion del viaje y reconocimiento que hizo del interior de la 
Florida en 1566 el Capitan Juan Pardo, por orden del Adelantado Pedro 
Menendez de Aviles, escrita por el soldado Francisco Martinez." Ruidiaz, 
La Florida, tomo ii., p. 477. And see Appendix W, The Date of Pardo's 
First Expedition. 

275 



276 The Spanish Settlements 

house which he named Fort San Juan/ and left his ser- 
geant Boyano in command with a small garrison. He 
then attempted to ascend the river to the north, but after 
a day's march retraced his steps down the river for a 
short distance, and going east reached Guatari, where 
he again rested for fifteen days. A letter from Las Alas 
met him at this point, ordering him back to Santa Elena, 
"leaving there a priest and four soldiers, he struck across 
the country to the Cambahee and returned to Santa Elena 
over the same route by which he had gone out. He had 
thus traversed the extensive region lying between the 
Savannah and the Wateree, as far north as the Alle- 
ghanies. The country was at that time inhabited by the 
Creeks, if we may judge from the etymology of the 
names given in the Spanish Relations. At all of these 
villages through which he passed he had assembled the 
natives and their chiefs and made them a short address, 
calling upon them to submit to the Pope and the King, 
to which the Indians had readily assented, in the evident 
expectation of thus getting rid of him.' 

Shortly after the General's departure Reynoso arrived 
at San Antonio with his company of thirty soldiers and 
Don Pedro, heir of the chieftain. A house was set apart 
for him in the town, and a cross erected near by, where 
morning and evening the Spaniards performed their de- 
votions in the presence of the natives who gathered to 
worship it. Dona Antonia returned to Havana in the 
vessel which had brought Reynoso, and with her went 
five or six of the chief men of the tribe as hostages for 
the safety of the Spaniards, for, notwithstanding the civil 

' " Relacion del viaje . . . escrita por el soldado Francisco Mar- 
tinez," Ruidi'az, La Florida^ tomo ii., pp. 477, 478. 

''■ " Relacion de la entrada y de la conquista que por mandado de Pero 
Menendez de Aviles hizo en 1565 \sic\ en el interior de la Florida el Capi- 
tan Juan Pardo, escrita por el mismo." Ruidfaz, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 465- 
469. See Appendix X. Pardo's First Expedition. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 277 

treatment which they received, but little confidence was 
reposed in the sincerity of Carlos's protestations. The 
ship reached Havana in six days, and after delivering 
Dona Antonia into the care of Alonso de Rojas, aldermaa 
of the city, returned to Carlos with additional supplies. 

In the meanwhile the situation of Reynoso had grown 
more and more precarious. Carlos had made several 
attempts to kill him by treachery, which Reynoso had 
frustrated through the secret information conveyed to 
him by the native women. There still remained a large 
number of Spaniards in the power of the chief, for all of 
the people wrecked along the coast for a hundred leagues, 
as well as those cast away on the Florida Keys, were 
delivered up to him, and the rescue of these unfortu- 
nates had been one of the principal objects which Avil^s 
held in view in seeking to establish himself among the 
Caloosas. But the savage chieftain was unable longer to 
curb his appetite for their blood, and he began to press 
the Spanish Captain for the return of his sister, in order 
to destroy them all as soon as he had her safely back 
with him. 

Avil^s had soon completed his disposition of the vari- 
ous forces in the islands, and by January, 1567, was back 
in Havana, where he received the alarming reports of 
Reynoso. Before proceeding to his relief he dispatched 
a vessel to San Mateo with orders to ascend the St. 
John's as far as Macoya, where it was to await his arrival 
from San Antonio by the inland waterway, and on the 
1st of March set sail himself with seven vessels and one 
hundred and fifty men for San Antonio,' taking with 
him his nephew, Pedro Men^ndez Marques, who had re- 
turned from Spain, '^ Dona Antonia and her companions, 
Father Rogel and lay-brother Francisco, both of whom 
had suffered an attack of illness during their stay in 

' Barcia, Ensayo, Afio MDLXVII., p. 125. 
^ Alegre, tomo i., p. 10. 



278 The Spanish Settlements 

Havana.' He reached San Antonio in two days, and on 
landing he ordered a chapel to be built for the con- 
venience of Father Rogel, and gathered from his lieutenant 
the much-desired information concerning the waterway- 
through the peninsula to San Mateo and St. Augustine. 
It lay, he was told, in the country of Tocobaga, an Indian 
chief dwelling near the head of Old Tampa Bay,^ fifty 
leagues distant from San Antonio up the west coast. 
Carlos was at war with Tocobaga and anxious that the 
Adelantado and Reynoso should accompany him against 
his enemy. To this the Adelantado replied that his 
mission was to establish peace among the natives, and to 
bring them to the faith ; to which the unwilling Carlos 
was obliged to submit and to renew friendly relations 
with the chief of Tegesta, with whom he had also been 
at war.^ The gratifying report of the existence of the 
waterway induced the Adelantado to proceed at once to 
Tocobaga to verify the discovery, but so great was the 
distrust inspired by Carlos's treacherous proceedings, 
that, unwilling to leave him behind, to work mischief 
during his absence, he compelled him, with other of his 
chief men, to accompany the expedition. One vessel was 
left at San Antonio, and with the remaining six the Ade- 
lantado reached Tampa Bay, sailing up the coast by 
night under the guidance of a Caloosa Indian. He as- 
cended the Bay of Old Tampa and reached the vicinity of 
Tocobaga's village an hour before the dawn without being 
discovered. Again the Indian instincts of Carlos were 
aroused, who begged to be allowed to burn the village 
and was pacified only by the promise of an honourable 
peace and the release of some Caloosa Indians, captives 
at Tocobaga, among whom was a sister of his and of Dofia 

' Alegre, tomo i., p. 11 ; Barcia, Ensayo, Afio MDLXVII., p. 125. 
^ See Appendix Y, Tocobaga. 

' Meras in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 277-284; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antigttas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 132-135. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 279 

Antonia. An Indian was sent ashore to proclaim in a 
loud voice the peaceful mission of the visitors, but the 
frightened savages, awakened in so unexpected a way at 
the early hour, fled in terror with their wives and children 
when they beheld the ship drawn up near their village. 
Tocobaga alone remained with five or six companions and 
a woman, and, the day having broken, sent a Christian 
slave to Aviles to thank him for not having burned his 
village and slain his people. The man proved to be a 
Portuguese trader ' from Avila, in the Province of Al- 
garve, who had been wrecked upon the coast, where all 
his shipmates had been killed, and himself ultimately re- 
duced to hewing wood and drawing water for Tocobaga, 
whom he also served in the capacity of a cook. 

Still unwilling that Carlos should come in contact with 
Tocobaga, Aviles went ashore to see the Indian chief, 
from whom he soon learned that the native fear of the 
Christians was not ill-founded, for white men had already 
visited the locality, and on the refusal of the chiefs to 
supply them with corn had killed them, and had them- 
selves in turn suffered a like fate at the hands of other 
Christians, who had proved very friendly to the Indians. 
Avil6s then delivered his customary dissertation upon 
true and false Christians, recapitulated his own pacific in- 
tentions, delivered up to Tocobaga those of his subjects 
whom Carlos had held as prisoners, and ended by receiv- 
ing the humble submission of the chief. 

The following day an interview took place between 
Carlos and Tocobaga in the presence of two inter- 
preters to hold the tricky chiefs in check. Three days 
later over fifteen hundred warriors gathered near the 
village, to receive the Adelantado. It was too threat- 
ening an assembly for the still distrustful Avil6s,"al- 
though the disposition of the Indians was friendly and 
he asked Tocobaga to dismiss them, retaining only the 
' He traded in corn, chickens, mantas, and honey. 



28o The Spanish Settlements 

chief men, with whom he wished to treat in regard to a 
peace, observing at the same time that his own soldiers 
were overjoyed at the sight of the warriors, thinking that 
the Indians had come to fight them. The ruse proved 
successful, and the peace with Carlos and the Spaniards 
was established. But all efforts to discover the water 
communication with San Mateo proved abortive. It is 
true that a neighbouring river was said to pass through 
the territory of Macoya, but he was the enemy of Toco- 
baga and the master of many warriors ; and Avil^s aban- 
doned the voyage because his own forces were insufficient 
to attempt it,' and finally departed, leaving Captain Mar- 
tinez de Coz with thirty soldiers at Tocobaga ^ to instruct 
the Indians in the faith.' There remains a curious account 
of the mortuary customs of the natives. On the death of 
a chief his body was divided up into small pieces and 
cooked for two days until the skin could be removed 
from the bones, when the skeleton was reconstructed. 
During the four days which this required a fast was ob- 
served, and on the fourth day the entire village accom- 
panied the bones in procession to a temple in which the 
reconstructed skeleton was deposited amidst the rever- 
ences of the assembly. All who attended the procession 
were said to gain indulgences.^ 

Aviles now returned to San Antonio, where he left 
Carlos who was still chafing under the peace which had 
been forced upon him, and threatening vengeance upon 
the Christians. The blockhouse was strengthened and 
the garrison was increased by a force of fifty additional 



' Meras in Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 298. 

"^ '^ e\z.sco {Geografia de las Indias, ij'/i-ijy^, p. 161) says the Spanish 
settlement consisted of 24 houses. 

^ Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 285-291; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antigiias Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 135-137. 

^ Dos breves memorias sobre las costumbres de los yndios de la Florida. 
MS. Arch. Gen, de Indias, Seville, est. 135, caj. 7, leg. 8. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 281 

soldiers. Father Rogel, who on his arrival had immedi-^ 
ately turned his attention to the study of the language/ 
remained to prosecute his work among the soldiers as well 
as among the natives, for the former had begged that he 
might be left to instruct them by his good example "lest 
otherwise they shortly become as savage as the Indians," 
writes Barrientos.* 

It had been the intention of the Adelantado to return 
the Tegesta Indians, whom Carlos still held prisoners, to 
their own people, to settle among them Brother Francisco- 
de Villareal, who had begun the study of their language, 
and then to proceed to St. Augustine and San Mateo; 
but on leaving the harbour he met a tender which had 
been sent from St. Augustine to Havana ; it brought him 
from the latter place a request for succour from the 
islands and letters from the Havana magistrates asking 
his presence in the city to quiet a conflict which had 
arisen between the Governor and the Adelantado's aid, 
Captain Barreda, who had been left under instructions 
from the King to protect the harbour." It further ap- 
peared that Pedro de Rodaban, sent by Philip to reinforce 
Aviles, had reached Havana during his absence, and, 
seized with the gold-fever, had mutinied with the inten- 
tion of going to New Spain, in which he was counte- 
nanced by the Governor, who wished to give him the 
command of the vessel he had brought with him. Aviles 
sent the Indians to Tegesta, and sailed immediately for 
Havana. In the course of a month he gained possession 
of the rebellious Rodaban, and sentenced him to death, 
but he finally allowed him to make an appeal. Ships were 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 284. 

^Velasco (in his Geografia de la Indias, 1^71-1374, p. 161) says that in 
1566 Aviles built a Spanish settlement of 36 houses on the island in the 
Bay of Carlos. 

* Meras (in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 294-296) gives a graphic 
account of the quarrel. 



282 The Spanish Settlements 

sent to Campeche for supplies and Avil^s was at last at 
liberty to carry out his previous intentions. 

His first destination was Tegesta, where he entered 
into a friendly compact with the chief, who gave him his 
brother and two other Indians to take to Spain. During 
his stay of four days Brother Francisco was settled there, 
a cross erected, a blockhouse built, and a company of 
soldiers was left in charge.' In three days' sail from 
Tegesta Aviles reached San Mateo. During his absence 
the war with Saturiba had continued, in which the chief 
had greatly suffered. Many of his subjects and several 
chiefs had been killed by the Spaniards, and Villarroel 
had cast into chains sixteen of the principal men. The 
camp master had ascended the St. John's fifty leagues 
to the village of Macoya, but after awaiting in vain the 
arrival of the Adelantado, returned to San Mateo, on 
account of the narrowing of the river beyond and the 
great number of natives which he encountered. 

The continuance of the Indian war was little to the 
liking of Aviles, whose untiring efforts had been directed 
to the establishment of friendly relations with the natives. 
His own forces were distributed along the extended coast 
in small companies, largely dependent upon such relations 
for their subsistence, and so isolated that despite their 
courage and endurance they would inevitably succumb 
to a concerted and sustained attack of the Indians, whose 
warlike qualities the General was too intelligent to de- 
spise. If the war with Saturiba should spread; if the 
Indians, finally perceiving the importance of burying their 
mutual jealousies, should combine and rise simultaneously 
against the Spaniards, it would put an end to his dream 
of conquest, overwhelm his colony, and sacrifice the 
fortunes of himself and his friends. He was now upon 
the point of returning to Spain in order to plead the 

' Velasco (in his Geografia de la Indias, 1^^1-1^14, p. 162) says that the 
Spanish settlement consisted of 28 houses. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 283 

cause of his colony. He further realised, should these 
dissensions continue, how dangerous the enmity of the 
Indians would prove in the case of a descent of the 
French upon the coast, who would turn to their own ad- 
vantage the fierce hatred which the Spaniards had aroused 
among the natives. And Aviles wished to depart with 
the conviction that peace was established, at least during 
his absence. 

Determined to bring Saturiba to terms, he caused one 
of the prisoners to be released and sent him to invite the 
chief to a parley at the end of the bar, two leagues dis- 
tant from San Mateo. His curiosity was also aroused, 
for he had never seen Saturiba, by whom he was reported 
to be held in high esteem and at the same time to be 
greatly feared. Saturiba replied that he was ready to 
meet the Adelantado at the appointed place, and asked 
him to bring his prisoners along with him. The follow- 
ing day, after a final leave-taking in which Aviles cheered 
and encouraged his half-naked soldiers with the promise 
of clothing, succour, and pay, which he would send them 
on his arrival in Spain, he dropped down the river to the 
appointed place, taking the seven Indian prisoners with 
him in chains. 

Saturiba had preceded him and was stationed on the 
land at a short distance from the sea with a large party of 
Indians. All efforts to prevail upon him to come down 
to the shore proved fruitless, and at his request the Ade- 
lantado landed his prisoners, still in chains, but under the 
guns of his ship, so that no rescue could be attempted. 
Saturiba, however, would not approach them, and an in- 
effectual conversation lasting for two hours was carried 
on between them and the chief by means of messengers. 
Finally it appeared that he wished Aviles to land in per- 
son, and a soldier, who understood the language, informed 
the Adelantado that Saturiba was plotting to kill him by 
means of an ambuscade and to free the prisoners. Avil^s's 



284 The Spanish Settlements 

patience was now exhausted, and abandoning all hope of 
coming to an understanding with the indomitable savage, 
he recalled his prisoners, and sent him word that hence- 
forth he would treat him as an enemy, and would either 
cut off his head or drive him from his country, on account 
of the Christians he had killed. Saturiba replied in the 
same spirit, and Aviles sailed for St. Augustine. 

On his arrival he found great discontent prevailing at 
the settlement owing to the insolent behaviour of Captain 
Miguel Henriquez, who had insulted the governor, Bar- 
tolom^, and had proceeded with a high hand in his treat- 
ment of the soldiers. Henriquez was tried, condemned, 
and carried off to be turned over to the Council of the 
Indies. Las Alas was appointed Lieutenant of the pro- 
vince, and measures were taken to prosecute an active 
Indian campaign, following an unsuccessful expedition 
against Saturiba led by Aviles in person. It was now 
the latter part of April or the beginning of May, and 
Avil6s took leave of his soldiers and set sail for San 
Felipe. He took with him three Timuquanan natives, 
the three Tegesta Indians, Rodaban and Henriquez, all of 
whom he intended to carry to Spain, and with a fair wind 
reached San Felipe in the course of three days,' where he 
learned from Pardo the results of the expedition to Juada, 
and of Boyano's discoveries to the south. 

In January, 1567, thirty days after Pardo's return from 
his first expedition, a letter had reached him from his 
sergeant Boyano, at Juada, at the foot of the mountains, 
informing him that he had waged war against the cacique 
of Chisca in the Georgia mountains, probably the same 
region where De Soto had sent a scouting party of two 
Spaniards with some Indians." With a force of only 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 291-305; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 137-140. 

' See Spanish Settlements, vol. i., p. 232, note i. " Myths of the Chero- 
kee," 19 Ann. Hep. Bu. Ethn., Pt. I., p. 201. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 285 

fifteen soldiers he had killed over a thousand natives and 
burned fifty huts, only two of his soldiers being slightly 
wounded, and he enquired whether he should not prose- 
cute the advantage. To this Las Alas, who was in com- 
mand at San Felipe, consented, directing him to leave 
ten soldiers to garrison the fort. While Boyano was 
awaiting the reply to his letter, one of the mountain 
chiefs sent him word that he was coming down to eat 
him and a dog which the Spaniards had taken with them. 
Thinking it best to be the first to attack, the sergeant 
started out with a party of twenty soldiers, and after 
four days' march through the mountains came upon the 
Indian stronghold. It was defended by a high palisade 
of wood, with only one small entrance. Under cover of 
their shields the Spaniards entered, the sergeant being 
wounded in the mouth, and nine of his soldiers injured. 
The Indians, seeing their village captured, took to their 
underground dwellings, from which they issued to skir- 
mish with the Spaniards ; but the latter killed some, drove 
others back into their huts, and, setting fire to them, 
killed and burned fifteen hundred natives, according to 
Boyano's report.' 

It was there that the letter of Las Alas found him. 
Having reduced the mountain chieftain, Boyano garri- 
soned the little fort of San Juan, and began his expedi- 
tion. Striking south in the direction of Chiaha, in four 
days* march he reached a great village surrounded by a 
strong stockade with towers, and situated between two 
large rivers. It was probably one of the red or war 
towns of the Creeks,'' for it was inhabited solely by three 
thousand warriors, and was entirely destitute of women 
and children. The warriors gave him a friendly reception 
and entertained his party with food. Twelve days' march 
from there, and pursuing in all likelihood the same trail 

' A Spanish proverb says : " Distant countries, big lies." 
' Spanish Settlements, vol. i., p. 59, and note 3. 



286 The Spanish Settlements 

that De Soto had traversed before them, the Spaniards 
reached the chief town of the country, Chiaha/ in the 
neighbourhood of where Columbus, Georgia, now is, and 
distant one hundred and forty leagues from San Juan. 
Boyano determined to await here the arrival of Pardo, 
who was to leave San Felipe in August, and so he built 
himself a fort, with the consent and assistance of the 
natives, for the cacique wished to be on good terms with 
the Spaniards. He named it Santa Elena and, with un- 
usual prudence for a soldier, began planting wheat and 
barley. In the mean time he was treated with the great- 
est respect. On approaching a town the natives would 
paint themselves in brilliant colours as if for a festival and 
come four or five leagues to receive him ; then they would 
conduct him quickly to their village, bearing him along 
in a litter, and dancing before him, and as he sat enthroned 
in his chair they would vie with each other in attempts to 
reach his presence and to bring him gifts of deer-skins and 
meat, fish and fowl, corn and game in abundance for his 
soldiers." 

A year and eight months had now elapsed since Avil^s 
had first landed in Florida, and he had realised in that 
short space of time, in almost every detail, the plans with 

' Spanish Settlements, vol. i., p. 231, note 2. Pardo calls it "Chihaque, y 
por otro nombre se llama Lameco." (" Relacion " in Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomoii., p. 471), and " Lameco, que tiene por otro nombre Chiaha." {Ibid., 
p. 472.) Vandera (" Relacion," ibid., p, 484) says : " Solameco y por otro 
nombre Chiaha." Shea, in his " Pardo's Exploration of South Carolina 
and Gq.ox^xz.'" {Historical Magazine, i860, p. 232), incorrectly translates 
this sentence in Vandera, as if it contained the names of two different 
towns, instead of giving two different names for one and the same town. 
He adds that Talimeco near Cufitatchiqui is interpreted by Buckingham 
Smith to signify taliminko, "rock chief." Shea identifies Chiaha with 
that of De Soto. Gatschet, in his Migration Legend of the Creek Indians 
(vol. i., pp. 62, 63), derives Solameco from a Creek word stili miko — "buz- 
zard chief," and incorrectly places it on the Savannah River. 

^ " Relacion del viaje . . . escrita por el soldado Francisco Mar- 
tinez," in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 478-4S0. 



M 













' 10 









IvfkfnfPO^ 














•fu^toy 



MAPA DE LA FLORIDA Y LAQ'JNA DE MAIMI," 1595-1600 (?), IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE 

INDIES, SEVILLE. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 287 

which he had set out. He had successfully expelled the 
French from the extensive territory under his command. 
He had in person explored the coast as far north as 
Santa Elena in South Carolina and circumnavigated the 
Peninsula from the St. John's on the east to Tampa Bay 
on the west, discovering three hundred leagues of coast, 
four deep harbours and twenty shallower ones, which he 
had marked out and sounded ' ; he had penetrated the 
country to the interior as far as central Alabama. He 
had twice explored the St. John's River, in part, and his 
failure to verify the existence of its supposed communica- 
tion with the Gulf of Mexico, upon which he laid so much 
stress, was solely due to his set purpose not to arouse the 
hostility of the natives. 

He had founded three permanent settlements, those of \ 
St. Augustine, San Mateo, and San Felipe, in situations 
along the shore of the Atlantic especially selected to serve 
as harbours of refuge for the treasure fleets. He had 
established a line of forts at Ays (St. Lucie), Tegesta 
(Biscayne Bay), Carlos (Charlotte Harbour), and Toco- 
baga (Tampa), on each side of the Peninsula, along the 
course where the treasure fleets in their passage to Spain 
were most exposed to the violence of storms, where 
wrecks were of most frequent occurrence, and where 
those who were cast ashore were subject to the inhuman 
treatment of the natives. He had carried out his pre- 
vious intention of forming a settlement on the Chesa- 
peake, the failure of which was due solely to circumstances 
beyond his control, and he had established a fort at the 
foot of the Appalachian Mountains, the source from 
which the Indians in their intercourse with the French 
had derived a large part of their gold and silver. Finally, 
he had taken all of the precautions within his power to 
garrison the colony and had distributed fifteen hundred 

' Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 317. 



288 The Spanish Settlements 

men in the various forts and settlements which he had 
founded.' 

He had used his utmost endeavours to establish friendly 
relations with the natives, in which he had succeeded in 
every instance, with the exception of that of Saturiba, 
whose hostile attitude was due in no part to his own 
want of tact, but to the insubordination and ill-will of 
his mutinous soldiers; and he had placed in the midst 
of those who were given to the greatest cruelty the two 
or three missionaries who had reached him from the 
mother country. In pursuance of this policy he had been 
so considerate in respecting the feelings of the natives 
that he does not appear to have exercised the right of 
distributing the repartimientos granted him by the Asi- 
ento,^ except, perhaps, at Santa Elena. He had ap- 
pointed agents in the most accessible centres of the West 
India trade, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Cuba, 
from which assistance could be readily sent to his nursling 
colonies; and he had been so successful in organising this 
important department of his government that one hun- 
dred and fifty sailors in twelve vessels were engaged in 
supplying the colonies and in prosecuting the discoveries.' 
The obstacles which he had encountered, the partial 
failures which had attended his plans, were due rather to 
the jealousy of officials, the absence of discipline among 
his soldiers, and the inhospitality of a new country than 
to any lack of foresight on his part, and these he had 
partly overcome by means of that prudence with which 
he was so amply endowed. 

Osorio, the Governor of Cuba, from whom Avil^s 
should have received all of the consideration to which his 

' Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 148. 

^ Capitulacion y asiento con Pero Menendez de Aviles para la poblacion 
y conquista de la Florida," Madrid, March 20, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomo ii., p. 42. 

^ Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Floi-ida, p. 148. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 289 

rank and the royal interest which he represented entitled 
him, had thrown every obstacle in his way which a 
powerful official with large authority and out of reach of 
the royal arm could raise. He had refused him money 
for his starving colonies, he had impressed his men, he 
had countenanced mutineers and deserters, he had re- 
fused him ships, he had driven him from the city of Ha- 
vana, and had even indirectly threatened his life. To all 
of this Aviles had submitted with a self-control very re- 
markable in a man of such decisive and energetic disposi- 
tion. But Havana was the storehouse nearest at hand to 
his new government, and in the interest of his enterprise 
and that of his friends whose fortunes were involved in it, 
he had put up with Osorio's arbitrary conduct, and, equal 
to an emergency in which the success of his conquest was 
at stake, he had revictualled his colonies with the prize 
money of his captains and what more he could obtain by 
pledging his own wardrobe. His prudence had finally 
been crowned with success, and he was now able to return 
to Spain with the conviction that he had performed his 
duty in every particular. He had left behind him two 
sources of weakness, one of which was the Indian war in 
the region of San Mateo, and the second was the wide 
distribution of his soldiers. One reason for the latter 
may have been the reduction of the drain on the store of 
provisions at San Mateo and St. Augustine, and the 
lessening of the spread of the ever-present spirit of 
revolt. 

On the verge of his departure Aviles directed that a 
number of blockhouses be erected in the neighbourhood 
of St. Augustine and San Mateo, each with a small gar- 
rison to keep the Indians in check,' to protect the trail 

' These were at Palican, an island near the Matanzas River, five leagues 
south of Augustine ; at Soloy ; at Saturiba, three leagues from and prob- 
ably to the south of San Mateo ; at Alimacany ; at Old St. Augustine, 
Tacatacuru, and at Guale. Barrientos in ibid., pp. 140-142. 



290 The Spanish Settlements 

between the forts; and stringent orders were given that 
no Indian should be admitted into them. The station 
at Palican, an island near the Matanzas River, five leagues 
south of St. Augustine, was to be built on an elevation 
where the sea could be watched and the passage of ves- 
sels reported to St. Augustine; dogs trained to attack 
the Indians were to be set loose every night in order to 
protect the cattle and keep the island clear of natives. 
He left orders that the chief of Tacatacuru should be 
killed as a punishment for the murder of Father Martinez 
and that of Captain Pedro de la Rando, who, with ten 
soldiers, had been treacherously set upon while asleep in 
the house of the chief.' 

May 18, 1567, Avil^s set sail from San Felipe in an 
extremely small vessel of only twenty tons burden. His 
company consisted of thirty-eight men, including six In- 
dians and a priest; the two captains, Henriquez and 
Rodabdn, went as prisoners.'^ June 15th he was at Ter- 
cera, one of the Azores, where he heard that Philip was 
to sail from Corunna for Flanders. Making for that port 
he was chased by one English and two French vessels 
into Vivero, twenty leagues to the east of Corunna. He 
arrived at Vivero about the 17th or i8th of the month, 
and learned that the King was still in Madrid. Avil^s 
wrote announcing his arrival, sent forward his prisoners 
to the Council of the Indies, and then went on to his 
native town of Avil6s. 

Meras tells an amusing story of the fright caused by his 
appearance among some shipping at Artedo, a little bay 
not far from Aviles, where he passed the night and was 
at first taken for a Turkish corsair.' The day following 

' Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 305-308 ; Barrientos in 
Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 140-144. 

'■^ Meras (in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 308, 309) says he was only 
17 days in crossing ! Barrientos (in Garcia, Dos Antigtias Relaciones de la 
Florida, p. 144), says Aviles arrived July 17th, an evident mistake. 

^ Meras in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. 311-313. 



Expeditions of Pardo and Boyano 291 

his arrival at Artedo he visited his home and saw his wife, 
with whom he remained for eighteen days, and July 25th 
reached Madrid. He presented himself before the King^ 
with his six Indians in their scant Florida dress armed 
with their bows and arrows. Garcilaso relates that as the 
Indians were passing through a village, on their way to 
Madrid, one of the Spaniards who had visited Florida in 
company with De Soto went out to see them. In order 
to show his acquaintance with their country he inquired 
of them if they were from the province of Vetachuco, or 
Apalache, or Mauvilia, or Chica^a, or from other regions 
where some great battles had been fought. The Indians 
immediately perceived his object, and looking at him 
askance, replied, "Do you want to have news of those 
provinces, which you left in such a bad condition?" 
Then, having consulted together a little, saying they 
would prefer to give him a volley of arrows rather than 
the news he asked for, two of the Indians shot some 
arrows in the air. They did this with such skill that the 
arrows mounted out of sight, and the Spaniard, who 
himself narrated the incident to Garcilaso, expressed his 
surprise that they had not shot at him, so great was their 
proverbial recklessness and daring.' 

On his arrival at Court Avil^s found that the false re- 
ports concerning his conduct spread abroad by the Florida 
deserters and mutineers, among which was the accusation 
that he had sold the provisions sent to Florida to his own 
advantage, had produced a bad impression on Philip and 
his Council. This he successfully dispelled. He told of 
his plans to impede the passage of the French to New- 
foundland, referring probably to his Chesapeake Bay 
enterprise, and was treated as a veritable Neptune of the 

"^ La Florida del Inca, Madrid, 1723, lib. vi., cap. 22, p. 268. Garcilaso 
says the village was near Cordova. This detail casts some doubt on the 
anecdote, for the Indians could hardly have passed by Cordova on their 
way from the Asturias to Madrid. 



292 The Spanish Settlements 

Florida seas, says Fourquevaux, who wrote Charles IX. 
that Aviles had been summoned to Spain to command 
the fleet which was on its way to Flanders to plant the 
Inquisition there.' If such had been Philip's original in- 
tention, it was subsequently abandoned. November 3, 
1567, the King rewarded him with the title of Captain- 
General of the West, appointed him to command a fleet 
of twelve galleons, with two thousand soldiers to secure 
the navigation of the West Indies, and granted him an 
aid of two hundred thousand ducats."" In the early part 
of January of the following year the King conferred 
upon him the commandery of the Holy Cross of Zarza of 
the Knights of Santiago with an income of eight hundred 
crowns in recognition of his services. If we are to trust 
Fourquevaux the appointment did not quite come up to 
the expectations of the haughty Adelantado, who had 
entertained higher aspirations, and who did not hesitate 
to show his disappointment in his demeanour.^ 

' Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Aug. 2, 1567, Ddpiches, pp. 241, 242. 

''■ " Titulo de Capitan General de una Armada de 12 galeones dispuesta 
en Vizcaia, destinada a la guarda y seguridad de las costas, islas y puertos 
de Indias," Escorial, Nov. 3, 1567, Ruidiaz, La Flo7'ida, tomo ii., p. 390 ; 
Meras in ibid., tomo i., pp. 309-320; Barrientos (in Garcia, Dos Antigtias 
Relaciones de la Florida, pp. 144-149) gives the date of September 15th of 
the same year (p. 148). Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Nov. 13, I567, 
D^peches, p. 289. 

° Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Jan. 19, 156S, Depeches, p. 316. " Pierre 
Menendes a eu le commanderie de Sainte Croix de la Sarce, vaillant huict 
cens escuz de rente ; et faict encore le dedaigneux ; car il s'en estoit promis 
une meilleur." The date appended to the entry in the Indice de prucbas 
de los caballeros que han vestido el hdbito de Santiago desde el ano i^oi hasta 
la fee ha (formado por D. Vicente Vignau . . . y D. Francisco R. de 
Uhagon, . . . Madrid, 1901, p. 222) is 1558. This is evidently a mis- 
print, for the reason that the entry describes him as "Adelantado de la 
Florida, Gobernador general de la Isla de Cuba," whereas he did not visit 
Florida until 1565, and his appointment as governor of Cuba was of still 
later date. It is also apparent, from the context of the paragraph in Four- 
quevaux's letter above given, that the appointment was of recent date. In- 
deed, from the character of the misprint and the date of Fourquevaux's 
letter the appointment would seem to have been made during the first half 
of January, 1568. 



CHAPTER VI 

MUTINY AT ST. AUGUSTINE — PARDO'S SECOND 
EXPEDITION 

AVILES had scarcely set sail when the authorities at 
St. Augustine learned of a mutiny which had been 
fomenting for some time prior to his departure. It had 
assumed extensive and threatening proportions, for it in- 
volved one hundred and fifty of the garrison. Their plan 
was to spike the guns, gain possession of the higher 
officials, and to carry off all of the property and the 
women. The suspicions of the authorities having been 
aroused shortly before the intended outbreak, an investi- 
gation was ordered and five of the conspirators were 
seized, who, being put to the torture, disclosed the ex- 
tent of the plot, but were nevertheless executed. This 
was followed by the seizure of some thirty more, all 
worthy of death; but the chaplain Mendoza cast himself 
at the feet of the judges and begged for their lives, on 
the condition that the mutineers should repent and bind 
themselves to keep the peace in the future. "And when 
I preached them a sermon in the presence of the judges, 
at the sight of their repentance and tears those gentle- 
men ordered their release from the prison into which they 
had been cast," writes the chaplain, "and suspended 
their sentence until they become guilty of another crime. 

Notwithstanding the efforts of Bartolome to smooth 
the pathway of the little colony, "he was still a man," 

293 



294 The Spanish Settlements 

says the moralising chaplain, and friction arose between 
him and Arguelles, perhaps Martin Arguelles, father of 
the first white man born at St. Augustine. The quarrel 
led to a passage of words between them, and Las Alas at 
once put the Governor under guard and cast Arguelles 
into prison, until the arrival of Pedro Menendez Marques, 
who with the assistance of the chaplain patched up a 
peace between them. Pedro de Andrada, with a force 
of eighty soldiers, was sent to assist Outina against 
Saturiba and some other chiefs who had combined to 
attack him. They appear to have been successful, and 
Andrada succeeded in burning one of the native villages; 
but on his return he was attacked by the allied Indians 
and slain with a large part of his company.' About the 
middle of August, Marques and Las Alas departed for 
San Felipe. A curious side-light is cast upon the scant 
resources of the little colony when we read in a letter of 
Mendoza in relation to one of his priests, who had been 
found guilty of a very grave offence, — that he did not 
write with more detail owing to the lack of writing paper, 
that which he possessed having been given him "for the 
love of God." " 

Towards the end of the month Marques and Las Alas 
reached San Felipe, and Pardo was directed to join 
Boyano at Chiaha, where the latter was awaiting him. 
September ist he set out, and ascending the Savannah 
as far as Cufitatchiqui, he struck across the country and 
reached Juada over part of the route by which he had 
returned on his previous expedition. He found that the 
Indians had surrounded the small garrison in Fort San 
Juan, but they laid aside their hostile attitude on his 
appearance and renewed their submission. Crossing the 
spur of the mountains, probably by the trail which 

' Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Nov. 19, 1567, Ddpeckes, p. 295. 
■^ Mendoza to Philip II., Aug. 6, 1567, MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, 
est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 9. 



Pardo's Second Expedition 295 

Boyano had followed before him, he reached Tocalques, 
perhaps Toxaway, at the foot of the mountains in north- 
western South Carolina.' A beautiful and fertile country 
now lay before him, which Vandera, who accompanied 
him, at a loss to describe it, could only compare to Anda- 
lusia. At Tanasqui Pardo thought that he discerned the 
smoke arising from the reduction of silver ore ^ : the trail 
to Chiaha passed through a region filled with wild grape- 
vines laden with ripe fruit, and medlar trees, probably 
the persimmon; it is a land of benediction, a country of 
angels, writes the delighted Vandera.' 

At Chiaha, where he rested a while, Pardo found 
Boyano with his soldiers. Although informed by the 
friendly natives that hostile Creeks were awaiting him he 
determined to continue his journey, and struck directly 
south "in the direction of Zacatecas and the Mines of San 
Martin," ' fascinated by the well-built villages, the pleas- 
ant streams, the corn-fields and the groves of wild fruit- 
trees through which he passed. Four days south of 
Chiaha at Satapo the report that the Indians had assem- 
bled farther on to attack him assumed such proportions 
that after consultation with his officers he concluded to 
retrace his steps and return to Chiaha. It had been his 
intention to proceed by way of Tasquiqui, near the junc- 
tion of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers/ and by way of 



' "Myths of the Cherokee," James Mooney, ig Ann. Rep. Bu. Ethn., Pt. 
I., p. 29. Shea in " Pardo's Exploration of South Carolina and Georgia," 
{Historical Magazine, i860, p, 232) suggests Toccoa. 

' Shea, ibid.. Historical Magazine, i860, p. 232. The silver mines of the 
Cherokees, "the existence of which, long doubtful, has now been recog- 
nised." 

^ " Relacion escrita por Juan de la Vandera," in Ruidi'az, La Florida, 
tomo ii., p. 485. 

* Ibid., tomo ii., p. 485. 

'' Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. i., p. 191. 
" Myths of the Cherokee," James Mooney, ig Ann. Rep. Bu. Etkn., Pt. I., 
p. 29. 



296 The Spanish Settlements 

Co^a in what is now Talladega County, Alabama/ as far 
as the Choctaw territory of Tuscaloosa in Alabama/ 
This plan he was now compelled to abandon, but one of 
his soldiers with a party of friendly natives went a dis- 
tance of five days' journey from Satapo to Co^a, bringing 
back a report that it was a town of one hundred and fifty 
householders," the largest and richest that had yet been 
visited. 

Pardo remained several days at Chiaha, where he 
strengthened the fort already built by Boyano, and left 
a corporal in charge with thirty soldiers. At Cauchi* 
another blockhouse was constructed and garrisoned with 
a corporal and twelve soldiers, at the request of the 
chief, who, under the guise of asking for Christians to 
teach his people, probably desired their assistance against 
his neighbours. Juada was reinforced by his sub-lieuten- 
ant, Alberto Escudero, and thirty soldiers, and at Guatari, 
through which Pardo also passed, a blockhouse was con- 
structed and left in charge of another corporal and seven- 
teen soldiers. From there Pardo returned to San Felipe 
at Santa Elena.' Of the fate which ultimately overtook 
these isolated settlements we have but a very brief record 
to the effect that the natives upon whom they were 

' See Spanish Settlevtents, vol. i., p. 232 and note 3. Shea (in " Pardo's 
Exploration of South Carolina and Georgia," Historical Magazine, i860, p. 
232), Gatschet {Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. i., p. 191), 
and Mooney (in " Myths of the Cherokee," ig Ann. Rep. Bu. Ethn., Pt. 
I., p. 29) all identify it with Soto's Cofa. 

"^Spanish Settlements, vol. i., pp. 60, 61. 

' " Vecinos." 

*Shea, ibid.. Historical Magazine, i860, p. 232. "The word Chatta- 
hoochee is not much abridged in Ca-u-chi." 

^ " Relacion de la entrada y de la conquista que por mandado de Pero 
Menendez de Aviles hizo en 1565 \sic\ en el interior de la Florida el Capi- 
tan Juan Pardo, escrita por el mismo," in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., 
pp. 469-473. " Relacion escrita por Juan de la Vandera," in ibid., tomo 
ii., pp. 484-486. Herrera in his " Descripcion de las Indias," (in vol. i. of 
•the Decades, p. 15) says Pardo went from New Spain to Florida in less 
than two years! See Appendix Z, Pardo's Second Expedition, 



Pardo's Second Expedition 297 

quartered finally rose and killed them all, only a fifer, his 
wife, and daughter escaping from the general massacre.' 

The reduction of the garrison at San Felipe brought 
little relief to its starving soldiers, and with the opening 
of 1568 the familiar conditions were again rife. Towards 
the end of the winter, supplies reached St. Augustine 
from Campeche, but previous to their arrival the price of 
corn had risen to one hundred and fifty reales a bushel 
and to more than twenty ducats at San Mateo. The 
garrison at the former place had been subsisting for days 
on a ration of four ounces of corn, — a quantity of which 
had been found in the rat-holes in the sand, — on the roots 
of palms, and on oysters, which Las Alas collected by the 
boatload. He had, however, carried out the instructions 
of Aviles as far as it lay in his power, and by the end of 
March two blockhouses had been built within sight of 
each other at the mouth of the St. John's, one on the 
south shore, near the bar, probably on the Mayport 
Peninsula, and the other across the river on the island of 
Alimacany, Fort George Island, and a third at Old St. 
Augustine.' The war with Saturiba dragged along, and 
on the 31st of March, shortly after the completion of the 
blockhouses, four hundred Indians attacked the fort of 
San Mateo, and entering it by a breach in the palisade 
caused by a flood in the river, killed one soldier and 
severely wounded Castellon, who was in command. On 
receipt of the news Las Alas at once sent Captain Fran- 
cisco Nunez, with fifty of his best men, to the relief of 
the fort. On their arrival the stockade was restored and 

' Relacion de las cosas que han pasado en la Florida tocantes al servicio 
de Dios y del Ray. Vino con carta de Juan Mendez, 6 de Abril, 1584. 
MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 16, p. 2. 

'Las Alas to , St. Augustine, March 23, 1568. Brooks MSS., 

Library of Congress, Washington. Fairbanks in his History of St. Augus- 
tine (New York, 1858, pp. 61, 103), thinks the blockhouses at the mouth 
of the St. John's were located the one at Batten Island and the other at 
Mayport. 



298 The Spanish Settlements 

Castellon was rapidly recovering from his wound when, 
like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, the French avenger 
descended upon the devoted garrison.* 

' Estevan de la sala en san agustin cinco de mayo mil quinientos sesenta 
y nueve cuenta como se perdio el fuerte de san mateo. MS. Arch. Gen. 
de Indias, Seville, est. 2, caj. 5, leg. 1/9. See Appendix BB, The Spanish 
Account of Gourgues's Attack on San Mateo, where it is shown that the 
date 1569 is probably a mistake for 1568. 



CHAPTER VII 

PHILIP NOTIFIES FRANCE OF THE MASSACRE 

WHILE Avil^s was achieving his conquest and settle- 
ment of the transatlantic peninsula, the negotia- 
tions pending between France and Spain had reached an 
acute stage. Only the dependence of Catherine on the 
assistance her Catholic neighbour might afford her in case 
the intrigues she was hatching with the antagonistic re- 
ligious elements in her own country should turn to her 
own disadvantage had prevented her from coming to an 
open breach with Philip over the question of Florida. 
De Thou ' has accused the Catholic leaders of having be- 
trayed to Philip the departure of Jean Ribaut's final ex- 
pedition, but we have seen with what accuracy the King 
was kept informed by his diplomatic agents of every step 
taken by the French. In the ignorance of the Protestant 
party concerning the true sources from which Spain de- 
rived its information it may well be that in the heat of 
the moment the rumours current at the time among the 
Huguenots made the Roman Catholics the scapegoats for 
the want of caution of the Protestants. 

It is not improbable that at the very time when Alava 
was conveying the final warning to Catherine at Tours, 

^Histoire Universelle, 1620, vol. ii., p. 536 ; Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride 
Fran^aise, p. 231. Haag says many Frenchmen thought the Guises had 
advised the Spaniards of the departure of the Protestant colony for Florida. 
" Un glorieux episode maritime et colonial," by Maurice Delpeuch in 
Revue Maritime, Oct., 1902, tome civ., p. igoo. 

299 



300 The Spanish Settlements 

Valdes had already arrived at Court with the information 
of the capture of Fort Caroline and the final catastrophe 
which had befallen Ribaut's fleet; for he had left St. 
Augustine with Aviles's dispatch of October 15th, and 
had probably reached his destination by the opening of 
December.' 

No breath of the result of the expedition had yet 
reached France, where Catherine was still playing her 
role of injured innocence and writing her daughter and 
Fourquevaux that neither she nor the King had ever sent 
a subject of theirs to usurp the estates of the King of 
Spain, but to the Terre dcs Bretons, and that they would 
severely punish any of their vassals who should attempt 
it. "May it please God," she piously concludes in her 
letter to her daughter, "that Florida may never cause 
you to believe that which is not so." " Jacques Ribaut 
arrived in France about the middle of December, and 
with two of his captains had gone post-haste to Coligny, 
to whom he had related the sack of Fort Caroline and 
the loss of his vessels, but the news was not yet known 
even in France.' 

At Madrid, as well, Fourquevaux was still in complete 
ignorance. Shortly before Christmas, in an interview 
with Alba, the Duke had complained to him of the 
French aggression in a region which had belonged to 
Spain since the time of Ferdinand ; and which was of too 
much importance for Spain to have neglected it. Had 
the French taken possession before or during the wars, it 
would have been mentioned in the treaty of peace' ob- 

' Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 5, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 105. 

^Catherine de' Medici to the Queen of Spain, received Dec. 13, 1565. 
MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (84). Catherine de' Medici to Fourque- 
vaux, Dec. 30, 1565, extract in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride, p. 415 ; Jan. 
20, 1566, ibid., p. 418, 

^Alava to Philip II., Dec. 21, 1565, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1504 (88); 
Jan. 6, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (64). 

* Cateau Cambresis, April, 1559. 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 301 

served Alba. Fourquevaux retorted that sea charts 
thirty years old showed that the coast, where Florida was 
said to lie, was called the Coste dcs Bretons; that it lay a 
great distance from Hispaniola, Cuba, and New Spain, 
so that its occupation by the French could not impede 
Spanish navigation, and concluded by saying that if 
Florida was not mentioned in the treaty it was their own 
fault, and proved that at the time of its making the 
Spaniards had not yet gone there. This drew from Alba 
the intimation that Philip would employ all of his re- 
sources to recover its possession, and that French affairs 
in Florida were already in a bad way owing to the arrival 
of the Spaniards who had been sent there the previous 
summer. But the hint dropped by Alba failed of its de- 
sired effect, for Fourquevaux had received reports from 
Lisbon and Seville that Avil^s was awaiting reinforce- 
ments at Santo Domingo. In a subsequent audience 
with Philip, Fourquevaux was unable to gain any further 
information, although he had expected that the King 
would refer to Alava's complaints to Catherine.^ 

With the complete success which had attended the ex- 
pedition of Avil6s, Philip at last felt that he could treat 
Catherine with ungloved hands and, wishing to deal with 
her directly, he passed over the French ambassador at 
Madrid, and instructed Alava to take a high tone in 
speaking with her about Florida. Indeed he had taken 
the matter so to heart that his Queen informed her 
mother of her fear lest any attempt to vindicate the 
French aggression would bring about a change in the 
friendly relations between the two countries." 

When Jacques Ribaut and his companions reached 
Moulins, where Catherine was at the time, his bearing 
was so retiring that Alava suspected he had received 
orders not to talk about the matter until a favourable 

'Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Dec. 24, 1565, D^peches, pp. 17, 18. 
^Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, Dec. 25, 1565, ibid., p. 34. 



302 The Spanish Settlements 

opportunity presented itself to Catherine to lay it before 
Philip.' For all that, it was impossible for Ribaut and 
his friends to avoid some show of 'feeling, which was all 
the more intense from its enforced repression, and meet- 
ing Doctor Enveja, one of Philip's agents, in the palace 
one day they threatened him and all the Spaniards in 
Normandy with death. 

Ribaut had been at least two weeks at Moulins, when, 
on January 15th, Alava had his interview with Catherine, 
and broached the question of Florida. He adhered 
closely to his master's instructions, and according to his 
report the conversation did not lack spice. When Alava 
informed her that her actions were not in accordance with 
the treaty of peace, she ingenuously replied that she be- 
lieved the men who had gone to the Isles des Bretons had 
returned." "I know of no Isles des Bretons ,'' retorted 
the ambassador; "you can baptise the coMntry Isles des 
BretonSf and call Peru Tierra firme des Bretons, as you 
like, but I heard the order given to your captain to go 
to New France by way of Florida, in which the name 
Florida was used." To this Catherine vouchsafed no 
reply, and, changing the subject, asked Alava not to ad- 
dress her son in so crude a manner, because he was too 
great to admit of it. "I shall not hesitate to speak to 
him," said Alava, "for though he is too young to treat 
of such matters, God has given him a good understand- 
ing. I am convinced that had he been old enough His 
Majesty would have sent some one to address him more 
urgently some time ago; that as for his greatness His 
Majesty has upheld it at a time when it was about to 
tumble to the ground, and will continue to promote 
it; and as you are regent, you ought to consider it." 
Catherine's only reply was to indicate her displeasure 
by a gesture with her head. Then Alava told her of 
Ribaut's threats to Enveja, at which she professed to be 

'Alava to Philip II., Jan. 6, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Taris, K, 1505 (64). 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 303 

greatly surprised and said the offenders would be pun- 
ished, but he added in cipher that nothing had been said 
to them. The interview was terminated, so far as Florida 
was concerned, with the routine promises on the Queen's 
part to prevent the further sailing of vessels in defiance 
of Spain/ 

By the middle of January rumours began to reach. 
Fourquevaux of the French defeat in Florida.'^ With 
the dissemination of the news the delight of the Spaniards 
had at first been tempered with a judicious fear lest Jean 
Ribaut might have avenged the attack on Fort Caroline. 
But early in February a detailed account, not only of the 
capture of the fort but also of the shipwreck and massa- 
cre of Ribaut, was generally known in the Spanish Court,^ 
and had reached Fourquevaux in its horrible complete- 
ness. It was received with great rejoicing. 

" This Court," wrote Fourquevaux, " were more gladdened 
than if it had been a victory over the Turks. For they have 
also said that Florida was of greater importance to them than 
Malta. And as a reward for Menendez's massacre of your 
poor subjects the said Florida will be erected into a marquisate, 
of which he will be appointed the Marquis." ^ 

The hour for further concealment of the facts had now 
passed, and the time had come for the ofificial announce- 
ment to France of the punishment Philip had meted out 
to the French adventurers. But Philip, while he con- 
tinued to maintain the same haughty tone towards the 
French Crown, determined to turn the incident to the 
advantage of his friends, the Catholic party in France. 
Although fully informed of the countenance which Cath- 
erine had given to the aggression on his territory, he 

1 Alava to Philip II.. Jan. 19, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 (67). 
^ Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Jan. 22, 1566, Depeches, p. 48. 

2 Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 11, 1566, Depeches, p. 52 ; Feb. 18, 
1566, ibid., p. 54. 



304 The Spanish Settlements 

centred all of his attack upon the leader of the Protestant 
party, the much-hated CoHgny, By this proceeding he 
hoped to compel the Queen to choose between the alter- 
natives of forfeiting his support or of disavowing her un- 
friendly act by making the Admiral the scapegoat for her 
Florida policy, and to force her, in the interest of the 
Catholic religion, to renounce the double part she was 
acting towards both parties. 

Accordingly Fourquevaux was summoned to an inter- 
view with the Duke of Alba, and the ambassador was kept 
impatiently waiting while two fruitless attempts were 
made to set the time for the meeting. The audience was 
at last held at Alba's palace after the dinner hour. Alba 
informed him that he was charged by the King to explain 
how Philip had learned of the French occupation of 
Florida, of which he had complained through his ambas- 
sador, begging Charles to withdraw his people and not 
to constrain him to send his forces there, which he other- 
wise would be compelled to do ; that he had so done, 
advising the French King of the fact in his desire to pro- 
ceed openly in the matter; that Charles had answered as 
a prince, brother, and friend of Philip, to the effect that 
if any of his subjects had gone to Florida, it had not 
been by his orders. And thereupon the Spanish army 
had gone thither, seized the fort, and punished the cor- 
sairs, pirates, and settlers of the country, who had built 
a fort, pillaged the Spaniards sailing to and from the 
Indies, and even sunk two vessels with their crews after 
robbing them, which the Spaniards had verified when 
they captured the fort. Alba then told him of the killing 
of the French, that Ribaut and Courset had confessed 
having sailed for Florida under orders from Coligny ; and 
that the Spaniards had subsequently found Ribaut's com- 
missions, letters, and instructions, by which it appeared 
that he had also intended to seize Havana. And Alba 
ended by saying that Philip begged and required of 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 305 

Charles that he should visit Coligny with an exemplary 
punishment as a perturber of the peace and cause of the 
disorder. 

Fourquevaux replied that owing to the absence of in- 
structions from his Government he was unprepared to 
answer Alba's representations. At the same time, while 
he denied that there had been any discussion of the 
Florida question at the date of his leaving France, he 
admitted that Charles had no designs upon Spanish terri- 
tory, and could only repeat the argument already used 
at Moulins respecting the right of his Sovereign to the 
Terre des Bretons in which he claimed that Florida was 
included. He then asked Alba to explain a report spread 
by Diego Flores, that Ribaut, when he surrendered, had 
told Aviles he was waging a fair war, as was the custom 
among soldiers; to which Aviles had answered that he 
was no soldier, but a corsair, whereupon Ribaut had said 
that he could show him his royal patents by which it 
would appear he had come there in obedience to the 
orders of his King. Alba answered that Flores had 
drawn upon his imagination if he had really said such a 
thing; and assured him that such an idea had never 
crossed his mind, for had such been the case, Aviles 
would have so informed Philip. 

Then Fourquevaux indignantly protested against the 
great cruelty with which the prisoners had been treated 
in putting so many soldiers to death, after their sur- 
render, which was not customary on such occasions, as 
the Duke well knew. With Alba's answer we are already 
familiar. The French were no soldiers, he said, for they 
drew no pay from their prince, but thieving pirates, and 
were punished according to their deserts; and they were 
heretics as well, preaching their perverse doctrines and 
pernicious sects; and had not such evil roots been extir- 
pated, the great harm of it would soon have become ap- 
parent. Had Aviles spared them, his own people would 






3o6 The Spanish Settlements 

have perished from hunger, as there was not sufficient to 
feed them all. The Spaniards were too few to retain 
them as prisoners. As Aviles was compelled to go else- 
where, leaving but part of his force in the forts, they 
would have risen against their captors and killed them. 
The ships he had were too small to contain them, nor 
could he safely provide them with ships, which would 
have enabled them to attack him elsewhere, and that, 
given all of these conditions, "the Duke knew of no man, 
however pious he might be, who would have resorted to 
other means and expedients than those followed by Pedro 
Menendez." Finally, Fourquevaux complained of the 
threatening language with which Alava had addressed the 
Queen in the Moulins interview, at which she had been 
greatly disturbed and had observed "that it was not the 
path by which the King her son was to be led." ' When 
the interview was over Fourquevaux at once advised his 
sovereigns of its purport and of Philip's intention to pal- 
liate his dastardly treatment of the French prisoners 
under cover of an attack on Coligny.^ 

Simultaneously with Fourquevaux's dispatch Philip 
informed Alava of Alba's conversation with the French 
ambassador, and of the arguments which had been used 
to justify the massacre; directed him to tell the Queen 
that in view of certain papers found in Florida and con- 
fessions of prisoners "taken alive" it very clearly ap- 
peared that the Admiral was responsible for the enterprise 
and had harboured designs upon Spanish ports and towns 
in the West Indies; asked that his punishment should be 
equal to the offence, as he himself would have acted under 
similar circumstances, and enclosed to him a relation of 

'Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 22, 1566, D/peches, p. 59; Philip 
II. to Alava, Feb. 23, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 (75). There 
can be no doubt that both letters refer to the same interview. 

* Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 22, 1566, Depechcs, p. 59; same to 
Catherine de' Medici, Feb. 23, 1566, ibid., p. 63. 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 307 

the expulsion of the French. While commanding him 
to press this matter with the greatest urgency, he charged 
him at the same time to make it apparent to the Queen 
and her son that he harboured "no suspicion or thought 
that the site where the heretics had been found was occu- 
pied by their order, but rather that it was reasonable to 
suppose that they were displeased at their action, as was 
due to their brotherly relations." ' 

The French Court was still at Moulins, and Catherine 
with her courtiers was in attendance upon her son, who 
was in bed, very weak from a recent illness, when on the 
i6th of March' Alava had his audience. No sooner had 
he touched on the Florida matter, than the Queen cut 
him short like an enraged "lioness," and turning her face 
in order that she might be heard by Montmorenci, the 
Bishop of Valencia, and others of her courtiers whose 
curiosity had been at once aroused, exclaimed : "Neither 
Turks nor Moors would have been guilty of so great a 
cruelty as the Spaniards have practised on the subjects of 
my son." It was a queenly speech, the gist of which her 
artistic Italian wit had filched from Fourquevaux's dis- 
patch.' "Raising my voice slightly I asked her to listen 
to what she called the inexplicable cruelty, for the punish- 
ment of those who were there was well deserved," wrote 
Alava in his account to Philip. He related to her the 
story probably much in the form in which we have it in 
Avil^s's letters, and pressed the moral home with the in- 
cisive abruptness which Philip had ordered him to ob- 
serve, repeating in substance the language used by Alba, 
and centring his attack on Coligny. 

' Philip II. to Alava, Feb. 23, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 
(75), and see same to same, Feb. 25, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (76). 

^ Catherine de' Medici to Fourquevaux, March 17, 1566, Gaffarel, Hist, 
de la Floride, p. 427. 

^ " Laquelle inhumanite ne fut pas usee par les Turcs aux vieulx soldatz 
qu'ilz prindrent a Castelnovo et aux Gerbes, ne jamais barbares uzerent de 
telle cruaulte." Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 22, 1566, Ddpeches, p. 61. 



3o8 The Spanish Settlements 

As the covert threats against her, and the malicious 
insinuations respecting Cohgny fell from the lips of the 
ambassador, mingled with the vindictive and cold-blooded 
account of the killing of her subjects, her anger kindled 
and she interrupted him incessantly. Under the lash of 
his tongue her eyes filled with tears of rage, and at last, 
casting aside all prudence, her nobler nature came mo- 
mentarily to her rescue and she exclaimed, her face trem- 
bling with agitation, "that the Admiral was guiltless; the 
armada had been equipped under her orders and that of 
her son ; that in the performance of his duty as a minister 
the Admiral had done what the King had commanded; 
that he was not to be blamed and therefore was not de- 
serving of punishment . . . for the armada had gone 
to their own land, the Isles des Bretons, where they had a 
fort with its garrison, and what would the world say when 
it learned that in a season of such brotherly love so cruel 
a war had been waged? " 

"I answered," continues Alava, "that your Majesty 
would not fail to be greatly surprised and pained on 
learning that the said armada had gone to occupy the 
said site at her command and that of her son, for Your 
Majesty had written me to tell them both that he enter- 
tained no suspicion or thought that by her order the 
armada had gone directly to the said site, where that 
people had been found, having heard quite the contrary, 
as I had told them. That when the world, as she called 
it, should hear the facts it would not fail to be scandalised 
that in a season of such friendship and brotherly love, 
when they had received so many benefits from Your 
Majesty, they should send the greatest and most infamous 
heretics of France to usurp his territories, and the more 
so when it learned that from the least to the greatest they 
were all notable Huguenots. ... If this was the 
office of the Most Christian King, let them judge. And 
if, in order to extenuate the Admiral, from whom they 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 309 

received such marked disservice and injury, the Most 
Christian King and she chose to burden themselves in 
this wise before the world, let her see to it. Like a mad 
woman, not allowing me to speak, she returned to the 
Admiral, saying that it was not his fault . . . and 
that she regretted that all of the Huguenots were not 
there." "But be that as it may," continued Catherine, 
"it was not for you to punish our subjects, and we will 
not discuss their religion, but the murder you com- 
mitted." "I said, please God that no Huguenots enter 
the country of the King my Master, except they be cut 
in pieces." ' 

Then the audience degenerated into a wordy combat in 
which the Queen, still labouring under great excitement, 
harked back two or three times to the Isles des Bretons, 
at which the King, from whom Catherine had concealed 
the defeat on account of his illness, exclaimed, "Look at 
the map, look at the map ! Have you seen it? " "Yes," 
answered Alava, "and that must be the title-deed which 
your Mother holds." Then she returned to the cruelty 
of the punishment inflicted upon her subjects and with 
renewed ardour took up the defence of Coligny. But 
Alava, although he admitted that Aviles had chastised 
the French with a little more severity than his master 
had intended, relentlessly pursuing his cross-questioning, 
asked her, "If the armament was that of your son and 
the men were in his pay, how comes it that no money 
was found on them and no papers such as you say, but 
that everything came from the Admiral?" "You de- 
ceived yourselves," she replied. "When you committed 
that cruelty and carnage, cutting off the heads of Jean 
Ribaut and of those with him in the ship, he showed his 
patents from my son and myself." Then Alava dwelt 
upon the absence of any information to that effect, 

' Catherine de' Medici to Fourquevaux, March 17, 1566, Gaffarel, Hist, 
de la Floride, p. 428. 



3IO The Spanish Settlements 

reverted to the attack on Enveja, and demanded the 
punishment of the offenders, which subject Catherine 
again evaded. 

But the importance of continuing friendly relations 
with Philip was too great for her to maintain for any 
length of time, so brave a front. When, in reply to her 
remark that each must go his own course, Alava answered 
that what she had said would relieve Philip, whose desire 
had ever been for that which would best serve the inter- 
ests of her son, she became very grave and replied: "I 
do not say that." "What then do you mean when you 
say that from now on each shall look to what concerns 
him? Would to God it could be so ! " exclaimed Alava, 
"but I see no way to it." And so the interview ended. 
"She was very angry because I did not answer to the 
point," concludes Alava in his dispatch, "because she 
was provided with answers prepared by her council, for 
which reason it is not advisable to say anything to the 
King's ambassador in Your Majesty's Court, since it 
amounts to advising them here, so that this Queen has 
her answers ready. When she is taken by surprise, her 
embarrassment is great, and more is learned of their 
intentions." ' 

At the same time that Alava was ordered to make the 
formal announcement of Philip's victory in Florida to 
their Most Christian Majesties, the King and Queen of 
France, his ambassadors in Austria and England were in- 
structed to convey the same information to their respect- 
ive Governments. The letters to Silva in England and 
Chantone in Austria were couched in substantially the 
same language as to the material facts which they re- 
cited, and were both accompanied by a relation of the 
event for the private instruction of the ambassadors, but 

1 Alava to Philip II., March i6, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 
80); Catherine de' Medici to Fourquevaux, March 17, 1566, Gaflarel, 
Hist, de la Floride, p. 427. 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 3 1 1 

there was a signal divergence between them in the stress 
which was laid upon the religious aspect of the question. 
To the Catholic Emperor and Empress of Austria the 
ambassador was bidden to relate that the French who 
had gone to Florida were not only pirates but heretics 
as well, who had taken with them preachers and quantities 
of books belonging to their perverse sect, to plant it in 
that land. The Admiral of France was declared, with 
some little reservation, to be the prime mover of the 
enterprise, and the ambassador was informed that the 
French Queen had been asked to visit him with a punish- 
ment commensurate with his offence, 

"since it is so notorious that he is the venom of that kingdom; 
the inventor and promoter of all the evil which they contrive 
and commit, especially in matters of religion. We shall see 
how they will take it in France," continued Philip in his in- 
structions. " We have small hope that it will be in a reason- 
able way. I will inform you of their answer that you may 
tell my brothers, as I now wish you to give them an account 
of all this in particular, and that they may understand that 
the occurrence in Florida has been for the great service of 
God, our Lord, since in killing those heretics, a stop has been 
put to the perverse doctrine which they wished and had already 
begun to sow. The sound and holy doctrine will be shown to 
the natives of that land, and the true path of salvation, which 
is that which we chiefly desire and profess." ' 

In Philip's letter to Silva, no reference whatever was 
made to the heretical religion of the French colonists, 
and stress was laid solely on the unauthorised invasion 
of his territory, the danger which it threatened to the 

' Philip II. to Chantone, Feb. 28, 1566, Col. Doc. Inedit. Espana, tomo 
ci., p. 126. There is a French translation of this letter in the Bulletin de 
la Social de V Histoire du Protestantisnie fran^aise of Dec. 15, 1894, which 
is reproduced by Maurice Delpeiich in " Un glorieux episode maritime et 
colonial," Revue Maritime., Oct., 1902, tome civ., p. 1023. 



3^2 The Spanish Settlements 

commerce and navigation of the West Indies, and the 
complicity of Coligny, whose evil influence on French 
affairs he stigmatised in identically the same terms which 
he had employed in his letter to Chantone, save that all 
reference to his religion was omitted.' On the 28th of 
March Silva, in accordance with his instructions, notified 
the Queen, who was at Greenwich, of the defeat of the 
French. Elizabeth expressed much pleasure at Philip's 
success, and bade Silva convey her thanks to his King 
for having advised her of the event. But the crafty 
Queen had not forgotten her own intrigues with Ribaut 
some two years before, and she expressed her surprise at 
learning that Florida had been previously discovered and 
occupied by Spain. In her ignorance of Philip's right 
"she had always believed that Captain Ribaut had been 
the first to have discovered it, for he had come to her 
with the news of its discovery, and she had determined 
to conquer it herself," and she asked Philip's pardon for 
having treated of the matter. "As for the Admiral," 
observed Elizabeth, "she understood the French, and 
did not care to treat of their affairs nor even to answer 
for them, for they were old enough to attend to them- 
selves." Although she expressed no opinion to the 
ambassador on the action taken by Coligny, Silva learned 
that she condemned his invasion of Florida, after the 
promise of the French sovereigns not to occupy Span- 
ish territory, and in the subsequent interview with Cecil 
the secretary agreed that he deserved an exemplary pun- 
ishment and thought that Philip ought to proclaim his 
discovery of Florida in order that it might be generally 
known.'' 

' Philip II. to Silva, March 2, 1566, Correspondencia de Felipe II. con 
sus Embajadores en la Corte de Inglaterra, tomo ii., p. 275. English trans- 
lation in Spanish State Papers, 1558-67, I. Elizabeth, 527. 

* Silva to Philip II., March 30, 1566, Correspondencia, tomo ii., p. 
292, English translation in Spanish State Papers, 1558-67, I. Elizabeth, 
536. 



Philip Notifies France of the Massacre 313 

The news had also reached Rome in the latter part of 
February/ but as we are not yet in possession of Philip's 
letter, which he undoubtedly addressed to his ambassa- 
dor there, we can only infer that its tone was similar to 
the one he sent to Austria, 

^ " News from Rome dated Feb. 23, 1566, with intelligence from Spain of 
Feb. 15th, of the defeat of certain Frenchmen in Florida," MS. Record 
Office, London, Elizabeth State Papers, 1566-68, Foreign, No. 127, MS. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE FRENCH REVENGE 



ABOUT the middle of March, five and a half months 
after his departure from Florida, Laudonnifere 
reached Moulins, where the French Court was gathered. 
As stated in a previous chapter he had been driven out 
of his course by bad weather, delayed by illness, and had 
passed through London on his way to Paris, from whence 
he had come to Moulins. Events which subsequently 
occurred seem to indicate that these were not the only 
reasons for his prolonged delay in presenting himself be- 
fore his master. He had left Florida while he was still 
chafing under the disgrace of his recall. The mortifica- 
tion consequent upon his ignominious surprise and the 
loss of Fort Caroline, joined with his evident ill-health, 
had made him querulous and discontented,' a disposition 
to which he had given vent in his quarrel with Jacques 
Ribaut on the eve of his return to France," and the ac- 
cusations which had given rise to his recall were still 
unexplained. He was accompanied by an unfortunate 
Spaniard, who, after various vicissitudes, had ended by 
becoming an interpreter for the French at Fort Caroline. 
On the approach of Avil6s he had been removed from the 

' The whole tone of Laudonniere's relation subsequent to the loss of 
Fort Caroline shows a defensive attitude and a disposition to exculpate 
himself from blame for the catastrophe. 

^ Histoire Notable, Basanier, p. 112 ; Hak., vol. ii., p. 521. 

314 



The French Revenge 315 

fort and kept under guard for fear lest he should take 
flight to his own countrymen. He returned with Laudon- 
niere to France, and upon arriving at Moulins at once 
became a tool of Alava, who used him to ferret out the 
designs of the defeated Frenchmen.* 

On reaching Moulins Laudonni^re found Jacques Ri- 
baut the hero of the hour and himself the scapegoat 
for the disaster which had overtaken the French colony. 
Ribaut had improved the interval between his own arrival 
and that of Laudonni^re to cast the responsibility of the 
defeat on the latter, and in the conferences which took 
place at the house of the Admiral Laudonnifere was 
censured for his neglect in the defence of Fort Caroline, 
his failure to maintain a sufificient garrison when he could 
have procured at least two hundred men for its defence, 
and his carelessness in allowing himself to be surprised 
during his sleep. 

At these meetings, which were conducted with the 
greatest secrecy, the Florida disaster filled all mouths, 
and the talk was already of vengeance and of the sinking 
of all Spanish ships that should be encountered.^ A 
number of French adventurers, including Laudonni^re, 
Ribaut, and Sandoval," the piratical governor of Belle- 
Isle-en-Mer, off the Brittany coast, a man of considerable 
wealth in ships and in moneys which he had obtained by 
plundering Spanish commerce, were among the chief con- 
spirators.^ Laudonniere's interpreter was caressed and 
cajoled and taken to see the Queen, where in her presence 
and that of the Cardinal de Bourbon he was made to 
confirm the French reports, and give them what informa- 
tion he could concerning the gold and pearls that were 

> Alava to Perez, March i8, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 (82). 
2 Alava to Philip II., Jan. 19, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (67), 
3 See also Alava to Philip II., March 23, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (95) ; 
April 28, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (96). 

* Alava to Perez, March 18, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (82). 



3i6 The Spanish Settlements 

found in Florida and of its capacity for the cultivation of 
the vine and of wheat.' 

These mutterings, of which Alava was informed through 
Laudonniere's interpreter, and which the ambassador 
faithfully reported to his master, could not but alarm 
Philip, whose suspicions were now aroused so that he 
looked upon every movement of the French as a covert 
vengeance, big with further designs upon Florida." En- 
veja was therefore sent to remonstrate with Catherine 
against the machinations of Sandoval and his compan- 
ions.^ To the complaint of Philip's agent Catherine 
laughingly replied that she did not see how Laudonnifere, 
who was so poor that she had herself given him fifty 
crowns, or Ribaut, who, on his arrival, had been ignorant 
of the massacre, could be arming ships against Florida. 
As for the interpreter, he was but a poor beggar who had 
been cared for in the Moulins hospital out of pure charity, 
and whom she had never seen." Alava also had an audi- 
ence with the Queen with the object of learning what 
designs she was harbouring. Meanwhile the rumours of 
French preparations continued, and now began to assume 
a more definite shape and to centre about Montluc,' who 
was in reality preparing for his attack upon Madeira, 
with the object of punishing the Portuguese, whom 
Fourquevaux had accused of assisting Men^ndez in his 
conquest of Florida.* But so haunted was Spain by the 
one idea of a French descent in that region that she con- 
tinued to attribute to every ship that sailed from a French 



' Alava to Philip II., March 23, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (95). 

2 Philip II. to Alava, March 29, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (86). 

3 Alava to Philip II., March 23, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (95). 

* Precis d'une reponse donnee par la Reine mere de France au D^"* 
Enveja, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (59). 

* Alava to Philip II., April 21, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (93) ; April 28, 
1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (96). 

* Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Franqaise, p. 255. 



The French Revenge 317 

port, and to every gathering of French seamen, some 
secret design against her territory. 

During the month of May Alava was at last in a posi- 
tion to assure Philip of his firm conviction that Florida 
was safe for that year. The information carried with it 
every evidence of being authoritative, for it came from a 
man whose opportunities for learning the most intimate 
councils of the adventurers appeared to be beyond dis- 
pute. After a short stay at Moulins, Laudonnifere had 
left the Court at so low an ebb in his pocket that, as we 
have seen, Catherine had given him money to pay for his 
food. The accusations of incompetency heaped upon 
him by his former companions in arms had soured his 
soul, and the commander of the second French expedition 
to Florida had finally come to Alava in Paris and had 
offered his services to the Spanish King. Some qualms 
of conscience still possessed him at the unworthy office to 
which he was aspiring, and Alava found it necessary to 
hold out to him the hope of securing an appointment in 
Philip's employ, but in the meantime Laudonniere assured 
the ambassador that no fleet would sail for Florida during 
that year, especially as the news had reached the French 
of the departure of Arciniega with a large complement of 
men to the assistance of Aviles.' 

Meanwhile the indignation in France had reached the 
highest possible pitch. ° Following their return home, 
Ribaut, Laudonnifere, and Le Challeux, whose account, 
published in May, went through two editions in the same 
year,' had disseminated abroad, and more particularly 
among the friends and relatives of the murdered French, 

'Alava to Philip II., May 7, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 (98); 
May 19, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (loi). 

** Fourquevaux to Charles IX., August 18, 1566, D/peches, p. 105, and 
see all of his correspondence as well as that of Alava. La Reprise de la 
J^loride , . . par M. Ph. Tamizey de Larroque, Bordeaux, 1867, p. 27. 

* Gaffarel, J/ist. de la Floride Fran^aise, p. 339. 



3i8 The Spanish Settlements 

their version of the massacre, and had stirred the deepest 
feelings of anger and hatred against the Spaniards. A 
deputation of the widows of the victims went to Paris, 
probably during the month of May, and raised such an 
outcry in the city that it had called for a Spanish protest.' 
This was followed by a second deputation of one hundred 
and twenty widows, who journeyed all the way from 
Normandy to Paris during the month of August to ad- 
dress the Queen on the same subject." It is probable 
that at this time was published the stirring and passionate 
"Petition to the King Charles IX. in the form of a com- 
plaint by the widowed women and orphaned children, 
relatives, and friends of his subjects, who were slain in 
the said country of Florida." ' But though the hearts of 
both Catherine and her son were in keen sympathy with 
those of their outraged subjects and burning with a like 
indignation,* their interests were so involved with those 
of Spain that they had been compelled to give the depu- 
tation an unfriendly reception and to send the widows 
back to their homes in order not to appear to counten- 
ance a public demonstration against their ally."* 

It was an inglorious situation for the Most Christian 
Queen. The massacre of her subjects had been like a 
stab in the back, to which she was compelled to submit 
without even lifting her hand, and Catherine sought what 
relief she could find for her outraged feelings in continued 
and repeated complaints in which she persistently dwelt 
upon the unusual cruelty of Philip's action and pressed 

1 Alava to Philip II., June 5, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1506 (5). 
^Alava to Philip II., Aug. 23, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1506 (39). The 
date of their arrival at Paris was August 19th. 

* See p. 426, in this volume. 

^See Alava to Philip II., April 21, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 
1505 (93) ; April 28, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (96); May 7, 1566, MS., 
ibid., K, 1505 (98). 

* Alava to Philip II., April 21, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1505 (93); Resume' 
des lettres de Fran9ois de Alava, Feb. 13-Apr. 9, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 
1507 (104) ; Alava to Philip II., Aug. 23, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1506 (39). 



The French Revenge 319 

her demand for the punishment of Aviles. But Philip 
was too assured of her weakness to give the slightest 
weight to her protests, meeting them at first with the 
same arguments which had been already presented, and 
then with that policy of procrastination of which he was 
a master. No means were left untried to work upon 
Philip, and Catherine sent Fourquevaux to her daughter, 
who informed her mother that she "did not think that 
the slaughter of your subjects would be so bitterly felt" ; 
nearly burst into tears "for fear some change should 
intervene between the two Kings," and finally promised 
to urge Philip to "execute justice upon murderers who 
had exceeded their commission by so execrable a massa- 
cre." Three days later, the Spanish Queen informed the 
ambassador that she had spoken to her husband, and had 
shown him the contents of Catherine's letter, to which 
his answer had been that his armada had not gone to 
Florida until after he had first notified Charles and Cath- 
erine; that he could not tolerate the usurpation of his 
territories by any nation in the world, and least of all 
by the adversaries and enemies of his religion. 

In the audience with Philip which followed this com- 
munication from the Queen, Fourquevaux went over his 
conversation with the Duke of Alba, and Alava's repre- 
sentations to Catherine and her response, observing that 
during the forty-one years he had borne arms, in the 
course of which the two Crowns had been frequently at 
war with each other, "so execrable a deed had never 
occurred "; reiterated the assertion that the French had 
gone to the Terre des Bretons; demanded the punishment 
of Aviles, and, seeking to touch Philip in the interests 
which he had most at heart, observed that "it was 
the best news in the world for the Huguenots, to find 
that where the French Sovereigns had looked for friend- 
ship and alliance and assistance in all of their great under- 
takings, their subjects had been murdered, overthrown. 



320 The Spanish Settlements 

and hunted out." This should have been the most tell- 
ing of Fourquevaux's arguments, for French sentiment 
was outraged at the insult irrespective of party.* 

Philip answered that if he had allowed such an inva- 
sion of his dominions it would have encouraged the 
natives to rebel and rendered the country uninhabitable 
for Spaniards; that he could suffer no descent of foreign- 
ers upon the Florida coast because it was the most im- 
portant locality in the Indies for the navigation of his 
vessels; that France had been warned beforehand at 
Bayonne ; that the French in Florida had captured and 
sunk Spanish vessels; that Aviles was too weak to have 
held so large a body of Frenchmen prisoners, and that it 
had been set down in the treaties of peace that each party 
should kill pirates, for which reason there was no occasion 
to have summoned the French before the attack on Fort 
Caroline. Fourquevaux insisted that they bore patents 
from the Admiral who represented the person of the King, 
but Philip put him off with the remark that he would con- 
sult with the Duke of Alba. "But I am convinced that 
it was to get rid of me," writes the ambassador in his dis- 
patch, "for the said Duke will never contradict himself, 
for it is said that he advised the massacre of all those who 
should be found in the said Florida, if there were no bet- 
ter way." With a covert threat that not in Spain only 
were there ministers eager for war, Fourquevaux ended 
the colloquy and took his leave. His interview with 
Alba, which took place the following morning, was a mere 
repetition of that with the King, and Fourquevaux, finally 
convinced of Philip's inflexible determination to maintain 
his haughty attitude, wrote Catherine that "there could 
be no hope of any reparation of the said massacre." ' 

The interview between Fourquevaux and Philip had 
occurred during the first week in April, and throughout 

' Alava to Philip II., Sept. i, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1506(44). 
'Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, April 9, 1566, D^peches, p. 69. 



The French Revenge 321 

the following months the controversy dragged slowly 
along, once stimulated by the sending of a memorial by 
Charles and Catherine,' and at other times by occasional 
returns to the subject in Fourquevaux's audiences with 
Philip.* Only in December, ten months after the incep- 
tion of the negotiations, came a formal reply of the 
Spanish Government to the French complaints, a not 
unexpected delay, for Ruy Gomez, Prince of Eboli, 
whom Fourquevaux had visited in the pleasant Bosque 
de Segovia, under the shadow of the mountains, had told 
him "that it was the custom of this Court to proceed 
slowly in all matters, and with great negligence or de- 
lay." " The Spanish reply is a brief paragraph only, and 
as it practically brought the issue to a close, it is here 
transcribed in full because it affords a complete and 
accurate summary of the Spanish attitude and is notable 
for the absence of any reference to the religious aspect of 
the question. The words read: "To all the articles 
which treat of the Florida incident there is little new to 
answer other than what has been previously said, that 
the Adelantado, Pero Men^ndez de Avil^s did not chastise 
the men he found there as vassals of the Most Christian 
King, but as pirates and infractors of the public peace, 
having possessed themselves of that country, which so 
properly and rightly belongs to his Catholic Majesty, as 
is understood, and therefore there can be no doubt that, 
given the prudence and sense of justice of the Most 
Christian King, he will be satisfied once for all with what 
is here said, since it is the unvarnished truth." * 

' " Memoire envoyee par Charles IX. et Catherine de Medicis k Fourque- 
vaux," May 12, 1566, in Gaffarel, Jlisi. de la Floride, p. 437, 

''Fourquevaux to Charles IX., July 5, 1566, De'peches, p. 93; Aug. 11, 
1566, ibid., p. 103; Aug. 18, 1566, ibid., p. 104; same to Catherine de* 
Medici, Aug. 23, 1566, ibid., p. 116. 

* Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, Aug. 23, 1566, Depiches, p. 116. 

■•"La pura verdad." " Reponse du Roi Catholique," Dec, 1566, 
D^pecJies, p. 163. 



322 The Spanish Settlements 

One point, however, was achieved. The women and 
the children under fourteen years of age taken at Fort 
Caroline, to the number of forty-eight in all, who had 
been sent to Santiago de Cuba, were set at liberty, and 
the balance of the French prisoners were to be forwarded 
to the Casa de Contratacion at Seville and to be detained 
there until their cause had been heard.' This was fol- 
lowed in the course of two months by the release of at 
least one of the men who had been captured at the fort.' 

Notwithstanding the submissive attitude of the French 
Government and the chilling reception which it gave to 
the public demonstrations of the widows and orphans of 
the Florida victims, the annual treasure fleet delayed its 
sailing through fear of the French,' and Catherine con- 
tinued in her favourable attitude towards Coligny.* With 
the successful outcome of Montluc's descent upon Madeira 
in conjunction with the English, the hope for vengeance 
was revived, and "the pirates, openly favoured, moved 
freely about the towns," where none dared forbid them 
in spite of the King's order to apprehend them/ Their 
activity on the high seas was continued with unabated 
vigour, and some of them, like Captain Mymy, of La 
Rochelle, and Sandoval, of Belle-Isle-en-Mer, wreaked 

' Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 22, 1566, D/peches, p. 6r, where he 
says there were 30 women and 18 children. " Reponse du Roi Catho- 
lique," Dec, 1566, ibid., p. 163. In the " Plaintes et Suppliques de 
I'Ambassadeur de France au Roi d'Espagne, Philippe II.," July 20, 1566, 
fol. 3, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1506 (23), and in " Memento pour 
I'Ambassadeur de P'rance en Espagne," June 10, 1568, MS., ibid., K, 
1506 (104), there is mention of 8 men and some children at Puerto Rico 
and Santo Domingo. 

^Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. 13, 1567, De'peches, p. 179; Feb. 23, 
1567, ibid., p. 186. 

^Fourquevaux to Charles IX., July 5, 1566, D^pkhes, p. 97. 

* Alava to Philip II., June 5, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1506 (5). 

'Alava to Philip II., Nov. 20, 1566, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1506 
(80); Nov. 26, 1566, MS., ibid., K, 1506 (81); Fourquevaux to Charles 
IX., Feb. 23, 1567, Depeches,-^. 182. 



The French Revenge 323 

their vengeance on the unfortunate Spaniards by drown- 
ing the crews of the vessels they captured.' 

With the opening of 1567 Fourquevaux, who during 
the early stage of the negotiations had advised his mas- 
ters of what little he could learn concerning the poverty 
and destitution of the Spanish settlements in Florida 
and the ease with which the French could overcome 
them,^ now wrote that the Florida garrisons had risen 
several times against Avil^s and had even attempted 
to kill him'; that the soldiers, driven to desperation 
by starvation and the failure of their pay, had scattered 
abroad through the country, and were thought to have 
fallen victims to the Indians; that but one hundred men 
remained in the fort, thirty of whom were Frenchmen 
saved from the wreck of Ribaut, who had pledged them- 
selves to Menendez ; that Fort Caroline had been burnt 
to the ground and that Avil^s had gone to the Canaries, 
where he was awaiting the arrival of two companies of 
foot soldiers from Seville/ Although Aviles at the time 
of this writing was actually at Havana, the account was 
substantially correct. The time was so opportune for 
giving vent to the pent-up spirit of revenge which was 
still slumbering in the bosom of every honest Frenchman 
that it seems more than a mere coincidence that at this 

'Fourquevaux to Charles IX., 1566? MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1507 
(4) ; Raport du Docteur Enveja sur la situation des choses en France au 
moment de son depart pour revenir en Espagne, Feb. 22, 1567, MS., ibid.^ 
K, 1507 (61); Fourquevaux to Charles IX., March 24, 1567, Depcches, p. 
193 ; Eraso to Philip II., May 13, 1567, MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, 
Col. Navarrete, tomo xxi.. Doc. No. 81 ; Alava to Philip II., Aug. 3, 1567, 
MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1508 (42); Aug. 12, 1567, MS., ibid., K, 1508 
(45) ; Aug. 19. 1567, MS., ibid., K, 150S (47) ; Aug. 25, 1567, MS., ibid., 
K, 1508 (49); Aug. 28, 1567, MS., ibid., K, 1508 (50); Catherine de' 
Medici to Alava, Aug. 30, 1567, MS., ibid., K, 1508 (51). 

^ Fourquevaux to Charles IX., April 30, 1566, Depeches, p. 81. 

^Fontanedo in his " Memoria," Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo v., p. 
540, mentions the plot of a Basque to sell Aviles to the Indians. 

^ Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, Jan. 4, 1567, Depeches, p. 159. 



324 The Spanish Settlements 

very moment when the hour was found the man had also 
presented himself. There is not a scrap of evidence that 
has yet been produced to connect Gourgues with this 
timely warning addressed to the French sovereigns, but 
he himself says that "in the beginning of the year 1567 
. . . [he] resolved to go to Florida to attempt to re- 
venge the insult offered to the King and to all France." * 
If the French Queen and her royal son actually did lend 
their aid to the enterprise, there were the weightiest of 
political reasons why their participation should have been 
kept profoundly secret. 
/ Dominique de Gourgues was born at Mont de Marsan, 
in the Landes, about 1530.^ He came of a distinguished 
/ Roman Catholic family, and was himself in all probabil- 
\ity of the Roman Catholic religion.' He had seen service 
in Italy, where he had been captured by the Spaniards, 
and had served them chained to the bank of one of their 
galleys," and he now set about collecting a small fleet 
with which to punish the affront put upon his country- 
men. Although conducted with the greatest secrecy, it 
appears that these preparations did not entirely escape 
the sharp eyes of the Spanish agent. Dr. Enveja, who 
informed his Government in February that the French, 

' La Reprise de la Floride . . , publiee par M. Ph. Tamizey de 
Larroque, Paris, Bordeaux, 1867, p. 29. 

* Gaffarel, Histoire de la Floride Francaise, p. 263. 

^M. le Vicomte A. de Gourgues in the Bulletin du Comity d' Arc hdobgie 
de la Province EccUnasiiqtie d'Auch, 1861, tome ii., pp. 466-490, estab- 
lishes that Gourgues's Protestantism is not mentioned by early historians, 
but is first asserted by Haag in 1853. That both his parents were Roman 
Catholics ; that his brother, who aided the expedition, was a Roman 
Catholic ; that Gourgues's intimacies and affiliations were with the 
Roman Catholics and that he was subsequently employed by the King 
against them. While the Vicomte does not absolutely establish that 
Gourgues was not of the Reformed religion, he certainly creates a very 
strong presumption that he was a Roman Catholic. Writers who accept the 
evidence as conclusive have gone too far. 

•* Gaffarel, Histoire de la Floride Francaise, p. 264. 



The French Revenge 325 

whose "dissimulation, malice, deceit, and treachery had 
never reached so high a pitch as at that moment," were 
equipping another fleet "for the slave trade, under colour 
of which they are arming to commit robberies . 
for they bear the Florida affair as fresh before their eyes 
as if it had occurred to-day."' The true object of 
Gourgues's expedition had evidently escaped him, for its 
apparent purpose was the slave trade, as Enveja had re- 
ported, and its real destination was not revealed, even to 
the crew, until the vessels were well on their way.'' 

Gourgues was largely assisted in his preparations by 
his brother Ogier,^ who had served as prisoner in the 
Spanish galleys during the Florentine war, and he set sail 
August 2d from Bordeaux in a large vessel of not more 
than two hundred and fifty tons and two smaller ones of 
one hundred and twenty and of fifty tons respectively, 
with a complement of one hundred arquebusiers and 
eighty sailors, all well armed. So cautious was he that 
his commission made no mention of Florida, but author- 
ised him to visit the African coast in order to make war 
on the negroes. Forced by contrary winds to put into 
the mouth of the Charente, he did not finally leave the 
coast of France until the 22nd of August, The first ren- 
dezvous was on the Barbary coast, whence Gourgues 
sailed to Cape Blanco, where he had two encounters 
with the negro chiefs, incited to attack him by the Portu- 
guese, who had a stronghold in that vicinity. From 

' Raport du Docteur Enveja sur la situation des choses en France, etc., 
Feb. 22, 1567, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1507 (61). 

^ Dr. Shea (in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 297) states : " That 
Gourgues was merely a slaver is evident from this full French account." 
He overlooks the existing relations between the French and Spanish Gov- 
ernments and the treatment openly accorded the widows of the Florida 
victims by their own Government, which rendered a subterfuge of primary 
importance. 

^Barcia, Ensayo, Aiio MDLXVIL, p. 133, Bulletin du Comitd d' Archd- 
ologie de la Province Eccl/siastique d'Auch, tome ii., p. 479. 



326 The Spanish Settlements 

there he ran to the West Indies and visited the islands 
of Dominica, Puerto Rico, Mona, and Santo Domingo. 
In the West Indies he was delayed by bad weather and 
drove a little trade with the natives in order to revictual 
his ships.' 

A long time must have been spent in wandering among 
the West Indies, for the following year had already set 
in, when, off Cape San Antonio, at the western end of 
Cuba, Gourgues assembled his people and finally declared 
to them the real object of his enterprise, and by the light 
of a full moon the fleet, increased by two small vessels, 
which he had probably captured during his voyage, 
entered the Straits of Florida and soon discovered the 
shore. While he was coasting along to the north the 
Spaniards at St. Augustine discovered the ships and fired 
a gun to inform them of the vicinity of a harbour and a 
settlement in case they were Spaniards, and to warn them 
off if they proved to be pirates. Gourgues replied to the 
signal, which he interpreted to be a salute, but, fearing 
discovery, he at once put out from shore and did not re- 
turn till the night had fallen, when he landed on an island 
within fifteen leagues of San Mateo. His good fortune 
had favoured him, for the island was that of Taca- 
tacuru,* where Father Martinez and Captain Pedro de la 
Rando with his company had been killed by the Indians, 
and whose chief was a close ally of the warlike Saturiba. 
Gourgues found the Indians drawn up under arms along 

' Dr. Shea {Narr. and Crii. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 280) says he sold the 
slaves he had captured on the African coast. As Dr. Shea in his notes 
(ibid., p. 297) says " there are no Spanish accounts whatever" of Gourgues's 
expedition, and bases his ow^n account on the Reprise dc la Floride, in which 
there is no mention of any such traffic, it would be interesting to know on 
what authority he makes the statement. Neither is there any mention of a 
trade in slaves in Barcia quoted by Dr. Shea. It is true that the relation 
in La Reprise arouses the suspicion that such may have been the case, but 
not to the extent to admit of so positive a statement as he makes. 

^ See Appendix AA, Tacatacuru. 



The French Revenge 327 

the shore to prevent his landing. He had brought with 
him a trumpeter, who, having been in that region with 
the French colony when Fort Caroline was built, spoke 
the native language. He sent the trumpeter ashore, and 
as soon as the latter was recognised by the natives the 
French were allowed to land and were received with the 
greatest demonstrations of joy. 

Gourgues, who was in ignorance of the hostile attitude 
the natives had assumed towards the Spaniards, did not 
at once disclose his projects to them, but, by tactful 
questions and suggestions, sought to learn their temper 
and to what extent he could rely upon their support in 
his designs upon the fort. Friendly and at last confiden- 
tial relations were speedily established, for the natives 
attempted no disguise of their hatred of the Spaniards ; 
and when Gourgues, having ascertained their disposition, 
finally revealed to them his purpose to deliver them from 
the tyranny of their oppressors, he found them ready and 
anxious to render him all of the assistance in their power. 
Saturiba, who with other chiefs visited the French on 
the day following their arrival, presented Gourgues with 
a French lad, sixteen years old, named Pierre Debray,' 
who was found in the woods by the Indians after the cap- 
ture of Fort Caroline, and had been brought up by them. 
From Debray Gourgues learned of the situation of the 
two blockhouses at the mouth of the St. John's, and, 
having sent a party to reconnoitre them, directed the 
Indians to prepare for the attack. 

In the course of three days the scouting party re- 
turned, and Saturiba, having assembled his forces, de- 
parted by night for the mouth of a river which the 
French thought was the Alimacany, where he was re- 
joined at daybreak by Gourgues in two boats with all of 
his soldiers and sixty sailors. Francois Lague was left in 
charge of the ships, which he was to put in condition for 

' Probably the Pedro Breu of Barcia, Ensayo, Aiio MDLXVIII., p. 135. 



328 The Spanish Settlements 

an immediate departure. Crossing the river the march 
was continued from eight o'clock in the morning until 
five in the evening, through the marshes and water, to 
the river Sarabay,' Gourgues carrying his cuirass on his 
back. At the river he was reinforced by three more 
parties of Indians, and learning that the blockhouses were 
now but two leagues distant, he determined to recon- 
noitre them in person, although he had eaten nothing 
during the entire day. Crossing the river with a little 
company of soldiers he again waded through marshes, 
and creeks, and in great darkness, to the neighbourhood 
of the first fort, where he was halted by a small stream 
rendered impassable by the rising tide. Greatly disap- 
pointed, for he had hoped to begin the attack on the 
following morning, he was retracing his steps when an 
Indian offered to conduct him to the neighbourhood of 
the fort by a longer but better path along the shore. With- 
out giving his weary soldiers time to rest, he set out again 
with his entire force, marched all night, and at daybreak 
came out at the creek again. The tide was full, and on 
the failure of his men to discover a ford, he was obliged 
to abandon his intention of surprising the Spaniards dur- 
ing their sleep, and withdrew to a neighbouring wood to 
wait for low water. He had scarcely reached the wood 
when it began to rain so hard that with the greatest difH- 
culty his soldiers could keep their matches alight. 

With the increasing daylight Gourgues observed that 
the intrenchments about the blockhouse had been just 
begun, and he soon saw the Spaniards at work on the 
fort, which caused him some anxiety lest his presence 
had been discovered. At ten o'clock the tide had fallen 
sufificiently to allow the passage of the creek, and select- 
ing a spot where a grove of trees intervened between the 
creek and the fort and concealed the approach, the men 

' Parkman suggests Talbot Inlet, Pioneers of France in the New World, 
Boeton, 1893, p. 168. 



The French Revenge 329 

waded across, with the water waist-deep, their ammuni- 
tion tied to their morions, and carrying their arquebuses 
and matches in one hand and their swords in the other. 
Most of the men had their shoes cut through and their 
feet wounded by the sharp edges of the oyster shells 
which covered the bed of the creek. Behind the grove 
they re-formed, still unperceived by the Spaniards, who 
were peacefully digging for water, A lieutenant was 
told off with a party of soldiers and sailors who carried fire- 
pots and fire-lances with which to burn down the door of 
the fort, and Gourgues made them a brief harangue. 
Pointing to the fort, which was visible between the trees, 
he exclaimed: "Yonder are the thieves who have stolen 
this land from our King. Yonder are the murderers who 
have massacred our French. On ! on ! let us avenge our 
King! let us show that we are Frenchmen ! " And he at 
once commanded his lieutenant to attack the entrance 
with his company, while he with the remainder of his 
troops advanced to a low platform alongside of the fort, 
where there was the beginning of a trench. 

The Spaniards had just dined, "and were still picking 
their teeth," says the account, which M. Larroque attri- 
butes to Gourgues himself.' A Spanish gunner had as- 
cended the platform, when he suddenly perceived the 
French approaching head down and with long strides. 
"To arms ! to arms !" he shouted. " Here are the French," 
and he let fly at them twice with a big culverin which 
stood upon the terrace towards which Gourgues had 
directed his attack. As he was about to load it for the 
third time, Olotoraca,^ an Indian chief who had attached 
himself to Gourgues and served him as guide, sprang 
upon the platform and transfixed the gunner with his 
pike. The Spaniards, who had rushed to arms at the 

' La Reprise de la Floride, p. I2. 

* Gatschet in his Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. i., p. 62 
says that the Creek olataraca signifies " great leader." 



330 The Spanish Settlements 

first alarm, now poured out of the fort, still uncertain 
whether to fight or to retreat. Then Gourgues's lieuten- 
ant, fearing they would slip through his fingers, called out 
to the Captain that they were escaping, and Gourgues, 
who with his men had already reached the terrace, which 
he was about to ascend, turned to one side, and the un- 
fortunate Spaniards found themselves caught between the 
two bands. Not one of the sixty members of the garri- 
son escaped death except those who were captured. "As 
many as possible were taken alive, by Captain Gourgues's 
order, to do to thon what they had done to the French,'* 
continues the account. 

The fort taken, Gourgues immediately turned his atten- 
tion to the second fort, which had greatly impeded the 
attack by keeping up a continual artillery fire from across 
the river. The French had discovered four pieces of 
artillery in the blockhouse, one of which, the culverin 
which had been fired at their approach, was marked with 
the armorial bearing of Henry II., having probably been 
captured from the French at the time of the massacre, 
and the sight of it only served to increase their irritation. 
These guns they trained on the second fort, while 
Gourgues, crossing the St. John's, took up a position be- 
tween the blockhouse and a grove of trees, close at hand, 
to which he thought the Spaniards would attempt to 
escape in order to retreat to Fort Mateo, which was but 
a league distant. According to the French account 
Gourgues had scarcely touched the other shore, when his 
Indian allies, unable longer to restrain their impatience 
and wait for the boat, plunged into the stream, swimming 
with one arm and carrying their bows aloft with the other. 
At the sight of such numbers, the Spaniards, greatly ter- 
rified and altogether unable to discern between the white 
men and the savages, took flight for the woods, where 
they found themselves caught between the Indians and the 
French. In their panic the fugitives were all mercilessly 



The French Revenge 331 

slaughtered except some fifteen, which Gourgues, with 
great difficulty, succeeded in saving alive, in order to 
mete out to them the same fate which he had reserved 
for the prisoners taken at the first fort. Las Alas with 
much greater probability relates that when the Spaniards 
in the second blockhouse had seen the slaughter of their 
companions and had exhausted their ammunition in firing 
at the French across the river, they spiked their guns and 
withdrew to St. Augustine. The date of this victory was 
April I2th, the eve of Quasimodo, the first Sunday after 
Easter.' 

Returning to the first blockhouse, Gourgues fortified 
his position and rested over Sunday, while he considered 
how he should next proceed against San Mateo. From 
one of his prisoners he learned the plan of the fort and 
the size of the rampart, and had eight ladders made 
of sufficient height to scale it. Monday he captured a 
Spanish spy disguised as an Indian, who had been sent 
out by Nunez to learn what the French were about. 
Interrogated by Gourgues, the spy informed him that the 
Spanish garrison did not exceed two hundred men, and 
were so surprised that they were at a loss what to do, for 
the French had been reported to them as two thousand 
strong. So encouraged was Gourgues by this informa- 
tion that he immediately began his preparations for the 
attack. The blockhouse was placed in charge of a cap- 
tain with fifteen soldiers, and the following night the 
Indians were stationed in ambuscade around San Mateo, 
while he himself set out in the morning with part of his 
men, and with the prisoner, who had given him the de- 
scription, and the spy tied together to conduct him to 
the fort, and to verify their statements. 

The garrison at San Mateo, however, were not as 
entirely unprepared as the Spanish spy had led Gourgues 
to believe. On seeing the strange vessels put out to sea 

' Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Francaise, p. 295. 



332 The Spanish Settlements 

in place of entering the harbour in reply to his signal Las 
Alas had advised Nunez of their presence, warned him to 
be on his guard against a descent of the pirates, for such 
he took them to be, and had sent the garrison a boat- 
load of provisions. Sunday following the capture of 
the two blockhouses he had despatched two soldiers by 
land to Outina, from where with half a dozen Indians 
they were to reach San Mateo by river and deliver a 
second letter of warning to Nunez and the commander, 
Castellon ; but this reinforcement was destined to arrive 
too late.' 

On approaching San Mateo the garrison soon discovered 
the French and opened upon them with their artillery, 
which commanded the banks of the river. Gourgues as- 
cended the wooded hill at the foot of which the fort was 
situated, perhaps the very height from which Le Challeux 
had looked back and seen the massacre of his companions 
in the court. Advancing amidst the trees, which con- 
cealed and protected him from the Spaniards, he drew as 
close to the fort as he wished, where he halted, intending 
to attack it the following morning. But the impatient 
Spaniards could brook no delay and made a sortie with 
sixty soldiers to reconnoitre his forces. It was a fatal 
mistake. From his commanding position Gourgues saw 
them advance along the trench, crouching low to escape 
observation. He at once sent his lieutenant with twenty 
men to place themselves in their rear, between them and 
the fort, and then charged them in person, having ordered 
his troops to hold their fire until they were close to the 
enemy, and then to draw their swords. On reaching 
the foot of the hill where the French were concealed, 
the Spaniards were received with a volley, and then fol- 
lowed a hand-to-hand combat in which the French used 
their swords so well that the Spaniards turned to withdraw 

' See Appendix BB, The Spanish Account of Gourgues's Attack on San 
Mateo. 



The French Revenge 



OOJ 



into the fort ; but their retreat was cut off by the lieuten- 
ant and they were all slain. 

On seeing the reception their comrades had met with, 
those who had remained in the fort attempted to escape 
into the forest only to fall a prey to the Indians, by 
whom they were shot down and cut to pieces. Gourgues, 
who had followed after them, succeeded in saving a few 
of them alive, but the majority were killed, with the ex- 
ception of the commander, and several of his com- 
panions, who finally managed to make their escape,' 
cutting their way through with their swords. A large 
quantity of arms was found in the captured fort ; but a 
fatality seemed to haunt the place, and for the second 
time the magazines and houses were consumed by a fire 
accidentally lighted by an Indian. The artillery was 
saved, carried on board the vessels, and brought back to 
France. 

There now remained but one more act to complete the 
drama. 

" The Spaniards captured alive in the last fort were con- 
ducted to the place where they had hanged the French, after 
that Captain Gourgues had shown them the affront they had 
put upon the King, . . . ' And though you cannot suffer 
the punishment you deserve,' he said, ' it is necessary that you 
undergo that which the enemy can honestly inflict upon you, 
that by your example others may learn to preserve the peace 
and alliance, which you have violated in so wicked and un- 
fortunate a way.' Having said this, they are swung from the 
branches of the same trees on which they had hung the French, 
and in place of the inscription which Pedro Menendez had 
put up containing these words in Spanish : / do this not as to 
Frenchmen but as to Ltitherans, Captain Gourgues causes to be 
inscribed with a hot iron on a pine tablet: I do this not as to 
Spaniards, nor as to Marranos, but as to traitors, robbers and 
murderers. ' ' 

' Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXVIIL, p. 136. 



334 The Spanish Settlements 

His work now completed, and the insult to France 
wiped out in blood, Gourgues turned his face for home. 
Before his departure he assembled his men and offered 
thanks to God for his victory, and on Monday, May 3d, 
set sail for France. Bartolome Menendez, on his return 
to Spain in 1569, informed Aviles that Gourgues left 
three or four of his men among the Indians friendly to 
the French to preach their evil sect to them.' But from 
the character of the French raid, it is much more prob- 
able that these men, if they really belonged to the com- 
pany of Gourgues and were not survivors of the Fort 
Caroline massacre, were deserters rather than mission- 
aries ( ! ) left behind by the French adventurer. On his 
way back he captured three Spanish vessels, the crews 
of which were thrown into the sea, and on the 6th 
of June reached the harbour of La Rochelle with his 
captured cannon and a large booty of gold, silver, pearls, 
and merchandise which his soldiers declared had been 
found at San Mateo, but which the Spanish ambassador, 
with far greater probability, thought to be the proceeds 
of his robberies on the high seas.^ From La Rochelle 
he proceeded to Bordeaux, barely escaping a Spanish 
fleet sent out to burn his vessels,' and in that city he al- 
most immediately sold the captured artillery.'' So great 
was the enthusiasm aroused by his return that Spes, 
the Spanish ambassador to England, who was passing 
through Bordeaux at the time on his way from Spain to 
Paris, was mobbed and threatened, and on crossing the 

' Aviles to Philip II., November 20, 1569, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
ii., p. 188. 

' La Reprise de la Floride, pp. 29-65 ; Alava to Philip II., June 25, 1568, 
MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1511 (56) ; June 28, 1568, MS., ibid., K, 1511 

(59). 

' La Reprise de la Floride, p. 67. 

*" Estimation des pieces d'artillerie rapportees par Dominique de 
Gourgues de la Florida, " Aug. 27, 1568, in La Reprise de la Floride, p. 
71 ; Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Fran^aise, p. 317. 



The French Revenge 335 

river the ships were pointed out to him with which the 
French "had avenged their friends dead in Florida."' 

Alava notified Philip II. as early as the 25th of June 
of the defeat of the Spaniards in Florida, and four days 
later the news reached the Spanish Court," Alava at 
Paris protested at once against the outrage committed by 
the French, to which Catherine merely remarked: "See 
how they have only just written me that they have taken 
Florida!" "I assure your Majesty," he wrote, "that 
she said it with a manner which showed her great joy." ' 
To Spes, who also protested on his arrival in Paris, she 
observed, that "the Florida affair has been without my 
knowledge or wish," and Spes in his report to Philip, 
added that " the artillery, which is known to belong to 
Your Majesty, has been ordered to be returned to Spain." * 

The Gourgues incident practically terminated the con- 
test between Spain and France for the possession of 
American territory south of Canada, until the curious 
attempt of Don Diego de Penalosa, more than a century 
later, to enlist the French Government in the conquest 
of New Biscay, which probably paved the way for La 
Salle's colony in Texas. The subsequent careers of the 
protagonists of the French colonies, Laudonnifere and 
Gourgues, do not belong to this history. With regard 
to the latter, circumstances were such that a public ex- 
pression of approval on the part of his government was 
quite out of the question, however much the report of his 
achievement had quickened the heart-beats of his King 

'Spes to Philip II., July 19, 1568, Correspo7idencia, tomo iii., p. 127. 
English translation in Spanish State Papers, 156S-79, II. Elizabeth, 68, 
where the letter is dated July loth. 

'^ Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, July 2, 1568, Depeches, p. 367. 

"Alava to Philip II., June 25, 1568, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1511 
(56) ; June 28, 1568, MS., ibid., K, 1511 (59) ; see also same to same, July 
27, 1568, MS., ibid., K, 1510(12), fol. 3b. 

*Spes to Philip II., July 19, 1568, Correspondencia, tomo iii., p. 127, 
English translation in Spanish State Papers, 1568-79, II. Elizabeth, 68. 



33^ The Spanish Settlements 

and Queen, but that he ultimately received the recogni- 
tion which he deserved of his country there is no longer 
any doubt. ' As for Laudonnifere, apparently disap- 
pointed in his hopes of obtaining anything from Philip, 
we only know that in June, 1567, he was still lingering 
about the French Court in company with some of the 
Normans who had been to Florida.^ 

' Gaffarel, J/ist. de la Floride Fratifaise, p. 314 et seq. 

2 Alava to Philip II., June 20, 1567, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1508 (24). 



BOOK III 

THE QUALE AND VIRGINIA MISSIONS; 
CONDITION OF THE COLONY 



337 



BOOK III 

THE GUALE AND VIRGINIA MISSIONS 
CONDITION OF THE COLONY 



CHAPTER I 

THE GUALE MISSION— DESTITUTION OF THE COLONY 

THE task which had fallen to the lot of Father Rogel 
proved arduous and thankless. Despite his efforts 
to acquire the language of the Caloosas, he still found it 
necessary to employ interpreters in preaching among 
them and in explaining to them the principal articles of 
the Christian religion. The instruction was of the 
simplest kind and probably consisted in teaching them 
to recite the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, the Credo, 
Salve, and the Commandments. Together with this the 
attempt was made to inculcate into their savage hearts 
the first principles of Christian morals. It was a difficult 
task to turn them from their ancient customs. He suc- 
ceeded in gathering about him a great number of the 
children on whom he hoped to make some impression,', 
using every effort to attract them, and distributing among-' 
them for a time the corn-meal which Fr. Francisco de 
Toral, the Franciscan Bishop of Yucatan, had sent him, 
when he learned of his missionary labours. But "the 

339 



340 The Spanish Settlements 

children who assembled to chant the doctrine recited 
only the call of hunger," and their interest ceased when 
the corn-meal became exhausted. 

With the adults he fared no better. Like Fray Luis 
Descalona in Cicuye, he only succeeded in arousing 
the jealousy of the shamans, Avho directed all of their 
endeavours to create a breach between the natives and 
the Spaniards. One day, while conducting a masked 
procession, the shamans resolved to ascend to the fort 
with their idols, either with the intention of compelling 
the Spaniards to worship them, or of arousing the indig- 
nation of the Christians and providing a motive for killing 
Father Rogel. In this they were partly success^ful, for, 
as the procession approached, Father Rogel reprehended 
them and ordered them to return to the town. As the 
shamans, regardless of his warning, continued to advance, 
Captain Reynoso rushed upon them and with the shaft 
of his lance gave one of the masked priests so severe a 
blow that he wounded him in the head. The enraged 
savages rushed at once to their huts, where they armed 
themselves with their clubs and staves, and some fifty 
Indians returned to the fort, but they found the Span- 
ish garrison already under arms, and concluded not to 
attack it. 

At Tegesta Brother Villareal found the natives far more 
docile. He made much progress with their language, 
confirmed many of the adults in the faith, baptised some 
of the children and even a few of the older people, among 
others an old chieftainess on the point of death. Large 
crosses were also erected, around which the natives gath- 
ered for instruction. But on the whole the labours of 
the missionaries bore little fruit, for the older converts 
soon fell away and returned to their idols. 

The Spaniards had been settled for a year at San An- 
tonio when it was discovered that Carlos was plotting 
their death, and, their patience being exhausted, he was 



The Guale Mission 341 

killed to make place for his successor, Don Felipe. The 
new chieftain showed himself so friendly to the Spaniards 
that hopes were entertained that on the return of Avil^s 
he and his family would submit to baptism and that he 
would carry the entire tribe with him. But again Father 
Rogel came into conflict with rooted custom, which put 
his teachings at defiance. Don Felipe wished to marry 
his sister, and when the Father sought to impress upon 
him the enormity of such a sin committed on the very 
verge of his baptism, the Indian coldly replied that when 
he should be baptised he would repudiate his sister, but 
that in the meantime he was compelled to conform to the 
customs of his country, the laws of which not only coun- 
tenanced such a marriage, but even considered it neces- 
sary. With the absence of Aviles matters had now 
reached such a pass that the Spanish garrison was subject 
to the same privations as were the Indians, and Father 
Rogel left for Havana to collect alms for his mission and 
to seek assistance for the settlement.' Here he appears 
to have remained until the arrival of Father Segura and 
his company at St. Augustine in June, 1568. 

Among the first matters to which the Adelantado had 
turned his attention on reaching Spain was the increase 
of the number of missionaries among his Florida In- 
dians, and in no wise discouraged by the sad fate which 
had befallen Father Martinez, Francisco Borgia readily 
lent him his assistance. Father Juan Bautista de Segura\ 
with three other priests and ten brothers ^ were selected 

' Francisco Javier Alegre, Historia de la Compania de "Jesus en Nueva 
Bspaiia, Mexico, 1842, tomo i., pp. 14-17. 

'^ Their names were Fathers Juan Bautista de Segura, Gonzalo del Alamo, 
Antonio Sedeno, and Luis de Quires, and Brothers Juan de la Carrara, Pedro 
Linares, Domingo Augustin, otherwise called Domingo Vaez, Pedro Ruiz 
de Salvatierra, Juan Salcedo, Gabriel Gomez, Sancho Cevallos, Juan Bau- 
tista Mendez, Gabriel de Solis, and Cristobal Redondo. Alegre (tomo i., 
p. 17), says three fathers and three coadjutors were appointed, but in the 
course of his account he gives a number of other names (see pp. iS, 21, 



342 The Spanish Settlements 

to renew the spiritual conquest of the country. With 
them went a number of Florida Indians who had been 
baptised. Father Segura, who was appointed the Vice- 
Provincial, was a native of Toledo, and after his entrance 
into the Society had been named rector of the College 
of Villimar by Francisco Borgia. From Villimar he had 
been transferred to the College of Monterey and subse- 
quently to Valladolid, where he was stationed at the time 
when he was selected for the Florida mission. On the 
13th of March the company set sail from the port of San 
Lucar. Touching at the Canaries and Puerto Rico, at 
each of which places a brief stay was made, St. Augustine 
was reached on the 29th of June.' 

The missionaries found the colony in a sad condition, 
a veritable wave of misfortune having overwhelmed it. 
Gourgues had but just sailed away on his return to 
France, leaving San Mateo a heap of ruins. Tocobaga 
was deserted, for the Indians had fallen upon the garrison 
and slain them all. At Tegesta the soldiers were in the 
greatest extremity. They had killed an uncle of the 
chieftain for some trifling reason, and the infuriated sav- 

24). Father Liiis de Quiros replaced Father Alamo, who was subsequently 
ordered to return to Europe. Philip Alegambe in his Mortes Illustres 
{RomDe, 1567, pp. 62, 63), gives only the list of the names of the Fathers 
who accompanied Father Segura to Axacan, which agrees with the corre- 
sponding list given by Alegre (ibid., p. 25), except that Alegre mentions an 
additional Brother, Juan Bautista Mendez. Garcilaso in La Florida del 
Inca (Madrid, 1723, lib. vi., cap. 22, p. 267), also gives a list of their names. 
' Barcia {Ensayo, Ano MDLXVITI., p. 137) states that Aviles sailed 
March 13, 1568, with Segura for Florida. In this error he has been fol- 
lowed by Alegre in his Historia de la Companla de yesus en Nueva Espana 
(Mexico, 1842, tomo i., p. 22), who states that Aviles came over with Segura; 
by Fairbanks in his History of Florida (Philadelphia, 187 1, p. 156), who 
gives the date of March 17, 1568, for his sailing, and by Shea in his The 
Catholic Church in Colonial Days (New York. 1886, p. 143), and in his 
"Ancient Florida" {Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 281), who 
gives the same date. Aviles was, however, still in Spain two months sub- 
sequent to the sailing of Segura: see his letter dated at Santander, May 12, 
1568 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 171). 



The Guale Mission 343 

ages had torn down the crosses which Brother Villareal 
had set up, burned their huts, and withdrawn into the 
forest. There they held the path by which the Spaniards 
went to draw water, killed a large number of the colo- 
nists, and drove the survivors to take refuge with the 
garrison at Santa Lucia. This unexpected increase of 
its population created so great a famine at Santa Lucia 
that the unfortunate colonists had been driven to the 
practice of cannibalism, in order to keep alive.' Of the 
settlements so laboriously founded by Aviles only St. 
Augustine and San Antonio remained, with the fort of 
San Felipe at Santa Elena. 

At St. Augustine the half-naked soldiers and the settlers 
were pallid with exhaustion and hunger, say the Jesuit 
accounts, for Aviles, stirred by the alarming rumours 
which reached him of the destruction of his colonists and 
the miserable plight of his garrisons," notwithstanding all 
of his efforts to assist them in time, had found it impos- 
sible to hasten the departure of relief owing to the 
vexations and delays of his old enemy, the Casa de Con- 
trataci6n.' Father Segura distributed among them the 
garments and provisions which he had brought with him, 
and the soldiers, being "attracted by these temporal bene- 

1 Velasco, Geografia de las Indias, 1571-1574^ P- 161. Francisco Sac- 
chini, Hist. Societatis Jesu, Pars tertia, Romae, 1650, p. 200. Alegre, 
Historia de la Cotnpania de Jesus en Ntieva Espana, tomo i., p. 18. Re- 
lacion que da Juan de Velasco cosmografo mayor de Su Majestad de lo 
sucedido en el descubrimiento de la Florida desde el ano de 14 hasta el de 
65. MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 
1/19, ramo 23. Relacion de las cosas que han pasado en la Florida to- 
cantes al servicio de Dios y del Rey. Vino con carta de Juan Mendez 6 de 
Abril, 1584, MS., ibid., est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 16, fol. i. 

'Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Nov. 19, 1567, D^peches, p. 295. Advis 
au Roi par le Prebtre, Nov. 30, 1567, ibid., p. 305 ; Fourquevaux to Charles 
IX., March 9, 1568, ibid., p. 336 ; April 6, 1568, ibid., p. 345. 

3 Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 23, 1567, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
170 ; Deposition of the Adelantado Pero Menendez [de Aviles], March 28, 
1568, Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 33, 983, fol. 328. 



344 The Spanish Settlements 

fits, it became an easy matter to make them recognise the 
hand of the Lord which was afflicting them, and to turn 
them to Him by confession, with which they all prepared 
themselves to merit the Jubilee which was immediately 
promulgated." ' 

Father Segura shortly realised how impossible it was 
for the depleted colony to maintain all of the missionaries 
in his company, a conclusion confirmed by the experience 
of Father Rogel, who had come to him from Havana. 
He cherished in his mind the plan of founding a Jesuit 
college in that city, not only for the Spanish colonists 
but also for the instruction of the sons of the Floridian 
chiefs, a plan which had its inception with Father 
Rogel during one of his previous visits there, and the 
opportunity appeared to be most favourable for its execu- 
tion. Brothers Domingo Augustin and Pedro Ruiz de 
Salvatierra were sent to Quale,* and with Father Rogel 
and the balance of his companions Father Segura pro- 
ceeded to Havana, where it would appear that the winter 
was spent in establishing the college and in work among 
the Spaniards and negroes.' Both Barcia and Pulgar* 
relate an incident of the voyage to Havana. On the 
way over a violent storm arose, which so provoked the 
pilot that he swore it was wholly due to the Jesuits he 
had on board ; for nothing of the kind had ever happened 
to him in his many crossings "with Lutherans, and even 
with Turks." The Fathers succeeded in calming the 

' Alegre, tomo i., p. i8. 

^ Alegre (tomo i., p. i8) says the two brothers were sent "to Sutariva 
. . . near Santa Elena," referring probably to the Indian village of 
Saturiba at the mouth of the St. John's, but on p. 22 he says they were 
both at Guale when Father Segura returned the following year. Sacchini, 
p. 200. 

^Alegre, tomo i., pp. 18-21. 

* Barcia, Ensayo, Aiio MDLXVIII., p. 137. Pulgar, Historia 
general de la Florida, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, MSS. 2999, fol. 
173- 



The Guale Mission 345 

storm by their prayers, but the unfortunate pilot, on his 
return to Florida "without the Jesuits," was shortly af- 
ter lost with all of his belongings at the very place where 
he had blasphemed. 

It was during this visit of Father Segura to Havana 
that Aviles, who had been appointed Governor of Cuba, 
arrived there on his second visit to Florida. We have 
no reliable record and no details of this visit, and his 
presence in Florida is largely a matter of conjecture. We 
have no knowledge of the date of his sailing, but it was 
some time after May 22, 1568, and possibly at the end of 
June or early in July, after Philip had received the news 
of the Spanish defeat in Florida. He was in Havana in 
April of the following year awaiting the arrival of the 
fleet from New Spain, which he was to accompany on its 
return home,' and is said to have visited Tegesta with 
Father Segura.^ By the month of September he was back 
again in Spain. 

In the following year (1569), probably in the early 
spring. Father Gonzalo del Alamo and Brother Villareal 
were sent to San Antonio, and Father Sedeno joined the 
missionaries at Guale. The Vice-Provincial, leaving 
Father Rogel and three brothers at Havana, himself 
departed for Tegesta with one of the neophytes, a 
brother of the cacique of Tegesta, who had accompanied 
the Jesuits on their journey from Spain. ^ The return of 
their tribesman, whom the natives had long thought to 
have died at the hands of the Spaniards, secured a peace- 
ful reception for the missionaries. Laying aside their 
former suspicions, they renewed their alliances with the 
Spaniards and restored the crosses. But this peace- 
ful condition of affairs lasted only for a time and, the 

' See Appendix CC, The Second Voyage of Aviles to Florida. 
'^ Alegre, tomo i., p. 22. 

^Sacchini, p. 201, calls him Jacob ; Alegre, tomo i., p. 32, San- 
tiago. 



346 The Spanish Settlements 

difficulties with the natives reviving, the Spanish garrison 
was finally withdrawn in 1570," 

The settlement at San Antonio was likewise doomed. 
The crafty Don Felipe had easily imposed upon the mis- 
sionaries, whom he allowed to destroy his venerated idols, 
while he showed a ready compliance with their teaching. 
But Reynoso was not so easily deceived, and, another plot 
being soon discovered, Don Felipe and fourteen of the 
chief accomplices were all put to death by order of Pedro 
Men^ndez Marques. The execution of so many of their 
principal men struck a final blow at any further under- 
standing between the Spaniards and the Caloosas. The 
Indians suddenly rose, burned their village, and fled to 
the forest. The Spaniards, who had largely depended 
upon the natives for their subsistence, now found them- 
selves utterly helpless ; the attempt to maintain the settle- 
ment was finally abandoned, the mission was withdrawn, 
the fort destroyed, and the garrison transferred to St. 
Augustine.* 

Such was the condition of affairs on the Peninsula, when 
Father Segura, despairing of the success of his college at 
Havana, which he found it impossible to maintain on ac- 
count of the insufficiency of the alms of the faithful, 
determined to remove the missionaries to Florida. The 
first difficulty which presented itself was the distribution 
of his spiritual forces. With a keen appreciation of the 
situation, the Vice-Provincial sought to isolate his mis- 
sions as far as possible from the Spanish settlements. 
We have already seen enough of the habits of the soldiers 

' Velasco, Geografla de las Indias, i^yi-j^y4, p. 162. 

'Alegre, tomo i., p. 22. Relacion que da Juan de Velasco cosmografo 
mayor de Su Majestad de lo sucedido en el descubrimiento de la Florida 
desde el ano de 14 hasta el de 65. MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, 
Patronato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 1/19, ramo 23. In this Velasco appears to 
set the date in 1568, but in his Geografia de las Indias, 1^71-1^74, p. 161, 
he says the settlement continued until 1571. Sacchini, p. 266, says the 
Carlos garrison was withdrawn in 1569. 



The Guale Mission 347 

to understand that they had not endeared themselves to 
the natives. In their frequent extremities for food they 
had been compelled to wrest from the Indians by force 
what supplies they could, and the hostile environment 
thus created was an unpromising field for missionary 
labours. Another object, which it was equally desirable 
to attain, was the avoidance of any friction with the civil 
authorities. The missionaries were officially the protect- 
ors of the Indians, the governor and his subordinates 
were their rulers. The method pursued in all of the 
Roman Catholic missions among the natives was such as 
to render the slightest interference of the secular arm 
subversive of all missionary authority and prestige. Nor 
were the civil authorities less jealous of the protection 
which the missionaries afforded the natives against their 
rapacity. To what serious conflicts between the two 
authorities these mutual jealousies led we shall see in the 
course of this history. 

St. Augustine and San Mateo, where the savages were 
in a state of revolt, seeming to be entirely out of the 
question, the provinces of Santa Elena and Guale were 
selected as the field for the further labours of the mis- 
sionaries. Father Rogel and Brother Juan Carrera were 
appointed to Santa Elena, where they arrived during the 
month of June,' and Brother Villareal joined the three 
Jesuits who were labouring in Guale.^ The Vice-Provin- 

' Rogel to Aviles, Dec. 9, 1570, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 301. 
In his letter to Hinestrosa of Dec. 11, 1569 {Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo 
xiii., p. 302), Rogel says "A mediado Agosto." 

" Brinton {Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, p. 152), Gatschet {Migration 
Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. i., p. 11), Shipp {Hernando de Soto and 
Florida, p. 560), Shea (" Ancient Florida," A^arr, and Crit. Hist. Am., 
vol. ii., p. 282), and Fairbanks {History of St. Augustine, p. 125) all incor- 
rectly identify the Guale of the Segura mission with Amelia'Island. There 
can be no question that it was the Guale previously visited by Aviles in the 
province of Santa Elena, situated on a river in the interior flowing into 
Port Royal and but a few leagues distant from San Felipe and Orista. In 
addition to the proof offered by the story as told in the text, the identity of 



348 The Spanish Settlements 

cial accompanied them, and after he had stationed Father 
Rogel at Orista, but five leagues distant from San Felipe, 
proceeded himself to Guale, where he remained for some 
time to study the expediency of distributing the mission- 
aries singly among the natives. The Indians at Orista» 
which consisted of about twenty houses, built the Father 
la church and a dwelling, where he lived with only three 
lads as companions, one of them a little boy named Juan, 
of so sweet and obedient a disposition that the Father 
was at a loss to find an occasion to whip him "in or- 
der that he should not forget the wholesome fear of the 
discipline." ' 

Father Rogel lost no time in applying himself to learn 
the native language, and at the end of six months had 
^ made suf^cient progress both to converse and to preach 
in it, and he began his instruction by teaching them "the 
unity of God, His power and Majesty; that He was the 
Cause and Creator of all things; His love of the good; 
His horror of evil . . . the rewards and punishment 
of the next life, the immortality of the soul, and the re- 
surrection of the dead." He found the savages about 
him far more tractable and moral than those he had 
known among the Caloosas. After three months spent 
at Orista he enthusiastically exclaims that "their manner 
of living was so well ordered and regulated that there 
was not a single thing to touch or to change among them 

the languages of Orista and of Guale proved by the recognition by Father 
Rogel at Orista of the utility of the grammar prepared by Brother Agos- 
tino at Guale is further evidence. That the name Guale Island may at a 
later date have been applied to Amelia Island, see Velasco, Geografia de 
las Indias, i^y 1-1^74, p. 169, " La barra de Guale." 

'Rogel to Hinestrosa, Dec. 11, 1569, Col. Doc. Inedit., tomo xiii., p. 
305. This is the letter dated Dec. 2, 1569, by Dr. .Shea ("Ancient Florida," 
Narr. and Crii. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 282, note 2), a date which he probably 
obtained from the Buckingham Smith N^orth American MS.. Ij6i, iS93t 
pp. 337-341, in the New York Historical Society, where it is written 
" a I J de Dizie de 1569 anos." 



The Guale Mission 349 

even if they become Christians." Each Indian had but 
one wife, worked hard at his planting, and the children 
were carefully trained. They were neither cruel nor 
thievish, and unnatural crimes were entirely unknown. 
They were great traders, expert at barter, carrying their 
merchandise into the interior. The elders met in the 
council house, where the affairs of the tribe were ordered. 
The Indians were truthful, dwelt peaceably among them- 
selves, and were given to but one vice, — they were great 
gamblers and would stake all that they possessed at a 
game of dice. During the year they passed but two 
and a half months at their village, planting their corn in 
the spring; but when the acorn season arrived they scat- 
tered through the forests to gather them and other wild 
fruits in their season, and only met together at intervals 
of two months to celebrate their festivals, now at one 
locality, now at another. Their provisions were held in 
common, and it was their custom to give away their food 
without demanding anything in return. 

From Guale Father Gonzalo de Alamo, a talented 
preacher, but ungifted for the work of the missions, was 
ordered back to Europe after four months' service, and 
his place was filled by Father Luis de Quiros. Brother 
Domingo Augustin made such progress in the language 
that in six months he had translated the catechism and 
prepared a grammar that proved of great service to his 
companions,' the first instance of the reduction to a sysJ" 
tem of one of our native languages. But he was not de- 
stined to continue in his useful employment. Towards 
the close of the first year which the missionaries had 
spent in the country about Santa Elena an epidemic 
broke out among the natives, and the Fathers, exhausted 
by their unceasing care of the sick and dying, were suc- 
cessively attacked by it. Fortunately they all recovered 

' Alegre, tomo i., pp. 23, 24 ; Rogel to Aviles, Dec. 9, 1570, Ruidfaz, La 
Florida^ tomo ii., p. 307. 



350 The Spanish Settlements 

except Brother Domingo, who fell a victim to his duty, 
after a year's service among the savages.* 

Meanwhile Father Rogel continued with his instruction, 
to which the natives listened with some attention, plying 
him with curious questions, such as their simple under- 
standing suggested. Particularly were they impressed 
with the punishment of the wicked, "for I assure you, 
sir," writes Father Rogel to Hinestrosa,' "that I have 
seen them shed tears at the terrors of hell, when they 
were told that their souls would burn in hell like a fire- 
brand if they did not die Christians." But it was a 
difficult matter to reach them, and although the Father at- 
tended their feasts and assemblies in order to hasten their 
conversion, the interruption caused by their nine-months' 
migrations in search of provisions made his ministrations 
of little effect, and his teaching was met with a constantly 
growing spirit of mockery. In vain he sought to culti- 
vate among them more domestic habits, and gave them 
hoes to aid them in making larger plantings, in order that 
their wandering should not be so prolonged. The natives 
gladly accepted the gift, but their inherited customs were 
incorrigible, and they persisted in spreading over the sur- 
rounding country in every direction, making their plant- 
ings at distances of six, ten, and even twenty leagues 
from the village, while only two of the villagers cultivated 
fields in the immediate neighbourhood. The reason was 
not far to seek, and Father Rogel, a sensible and intelli- 
gent man, as well as a devoted one, was quick to recog- 
nise it. The soil was so poor that it soon became 
exhausted, and it was necessary that the cultivators go 
elsewhere. 

At the expiration of eight months Father Rogel had 
brought them to the belief in the Trinity and to under- 

' Alegre, tomo i., p. 23; Rogel to Aviles, Dec. 9, 1570, Ruidiaz, La 
Florida, tomo ii., p. 307, who, however, does not mention the pestilence. 
'Letter of Dec. 11, 1569, Col, Doc. Incdit. Jndias, tomo xiii., p. 303. 



The Guale Mission 351 

stand the significance of the Roman Catholic veneration 
of the Cross, and had, as it seemed to him, gained their 
good-will so that they had grown to love him. Then 
"I began to declare to them how, in order to be the sons 
of God, it was needful for them to be enemies of the 
devil, for the devil is evil, and loves all evil things; and 
God is good and loves all good things," says Father 
Rogel, To his consternation and alarm the effect pro- 
duced by this teaching was altogether the reverse of that 
which he had intended, while not wanting in a ludicrous 
side. "When I began to treat of this," he continues, 
"so great was the vexation and hatred which they con- 
ceived at my words, that never again would they come 
to listen to me ; and they said to my people that they 
were very angry and did not believe a thing I said, since 
I spoke ill of the devil." And even the two remaining 
dwellers in the village abandoned him for the same 
reason. It is permissible to think that the good Father 
was here the innocent victim of a foreign vocabulary, and 
that in his choice of names with which to designate the 
Spirit of Evil he had fallen upon that of some beneficent 
Indian deity, whose office he imperfectly understood, and 
to whom in his ignorance he had attributed all of the 
qualities of the arch-fiend. 

Undismayed by the discouraging result of his labours, 
and with that consummate devotion to his vocation 
which has everywhere distinguished the missionaries of 
the Society, the Jesuit Father journeyed from chief to 
chief, offering to live in their midst that he might teach 
them the Divine Word, provided they honestly wished 
to become Christians ; otherwise he would depart from 
them and return to Spain. But he met with no response 
whatever. At last, at a great council of Orista's vassals, 
after he had repeated his offer, the Indians sadly observed : 
"How can you say that you love us so greatly when 
you say you wish to leave us? " "From that time on,"' 



352 The Spanish Settlements 

continues the Father, "I certainly expected to lose my 
skin/ and as soon as I saw it I changed my language and 
praised them like children, and was thus able to return in 
safety to my post." 

Father Rogel's work was brought to an end in July, 
1570, by the occurrence of one of the very incidents which 
the Vice- Provincial had taken so many precautions to 
avoid. There was a small settlement of twenty married 
men at Santa Elena,^ consisting of farmers who had been 
colonised there by Aviles,' but the land was poor, and 
fear of the natives prevented them from going any dis- 
tance to establish their farms. The fort was falling into 
decay, the soldiers were half naked and poorly armed,' 
and hunger was again staring the garrison in the face, for 
their supplies had become greatly reduced. Their only 
resource was to obtain relief from the Indians. To- 
wards the end of June Juan de la Vandera, who still re- 
mained in command at San Felipe, attended an Indian 
festival at Escamacu, and ordered four of the chiefs, 
among whom were Crista, Hoya, and Escamacu, to send 
some canoe-loads of corn to the fort. At the same time, 
in order to reduce the number of mouths at San Felipe, 
he quartered forty of his soldiers among the natives to 
await the arrival of supplies. The necessary consequence 
was not slow to follow. Shortly after the arrival of the 
soldiers the Indians rose in revolt, and the disturbance 
continued until the arrival of Marqu6s and Las Alas, who 
finally succeeded in restoring order. 

As soon as Father Rogel learned of Vandera's inten- 
tion he foresaw what would come of it, its evil effect 
upon his work, and the false position in which it would 

' " Dar la piel " (to be killed). 

^ " Diligencias hechas en Sevilla con motivo de la venida de Esteban de 
las Alas, de la Florida, 1570," Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., pp. 572, 579. 
^Aviles to Philip II., Nov. 24, 1569, ibid., tomo ii., p. 190. 
^"Diligencias," 1570, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 576, 580, 583, 584. 



The Guale Mission 353 

place him. If he remained among the Indians, they 
would turn to him for a protection which he could 
not give, for he realised the stern necessity under which 
the Spanish commander was acting. If they rose in in- 
surrection they would visit their vengeance upon him, 
and in every event the ill-will stirred up among the na- 
tives would bring his labours to an end. The Vice- 
Provincial had ordered him to withdraw to Santa Elena 
in case his life was threatened, and with sorrowful heart 
he determined to abandon his mission. He commended 
his little flock to God, and, eight or ten days before the 
arrival of the soldiers at Crista, pulled down his house 
and his church, and on the 13th of July departed fori 
Santa Elena, leaving word that whenever the Indians 
should have need of him they were to call on him and 
he would return to live among them. 

Father Sedeno and probably all of the other mission- 
aries were withdrawn from Guale, where their work had 
borne but little fruit, — seven baptisms in all, administeredx 
when the recipients, four of whom were children, were 
on the point of death. The instruction of the mission- 
aries concerning the devil had met with a reception 
similar to that accorded to it at Crista. Father Rogel 
was ordered back to Havana and Father Sedeno to in- 
struct the native children collected at St. Augustine from 
the villages of Saturiba and Tacatacuru ; but the Jesuits 
found the fort so poorly garrisoned and in so bad a con- 
dition and the Indians so turbulent that the plan was 
given up, and Father Sedefio accompanied Father Rogel 
to Havana. 

Father Rogel had rightly apprehended one of the chief 
causes of his failure to produce any lasting impression 
upon the Indians when he ascribed it to their migra- 
tory habits, and the impossibility of obtaining any per- 
manent ascendency over their minds during two or 
three months, when for the balance of the year they 



354 The Spanish Settlements 

roamed the forest in search of food like wild beasts. As 
a result of his experience he included in his letter to 
Aviles some suggestions as to the proper course to pur- 
sue in such circumstances, and his observations are highly- 
interesting, as they embody for the first time the method 
which the missionaries subsequently adopted throughout 
the length and breadth of our land irrespective of the 
Order to which they belonged, a method which may be 
studied in some of its most interesting phases in the 
California missions more than two centuries later. 

" In order to obtain fruit in the blind and sad souls of these 
provinces, it is necessary first of all to order the Indians to 
come together, and live in towns and cultivate the earth, col- 
lecting sustenance for the entire year; and after they have 
thus become very settled, then to begin the preaching. Un- 
less this is done, although the religious remain among them for 
fifty years, they will have no more fruit than we in our four 
years among them, which is none at all, nor even a hope, nor 
the semblance of it." 

And even then it will be a most severe labour of many 
years, 

"for it must be done rightly, as our Lord God commands,, 
neither by compelling them nor with a mailed hand. And 
this for two reasons: the first that they have been accustomed 
to live in this manner for thousands of years, and to take them 
out of it is like death to them ; the second, that even were they 
willing, the poverty of the soil and its rapid exhaustion will- 
not admit of it; and so it is that they themselves give this 
reason for their scattering and change of boundaries." ' 

' Rogel to Aviles, Dec. 9, 1570, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 301-308. There is a 
translation of this letter by Daniel G. Brinton in the Historical Magazine, 
1861, p. 327. See also his Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, pp. 152, 153. 
There is an unimportant reference to Rogel made by Mooney in ig Ann^ 
Hep. £u. Ethn., Pt. I., p. 201. 



The Guale Mission 355 

The deplorable state of the San Felipe garrison, which 
had driven Vandera to the necessity of quartering part of 
his forces on the Indians, and thus compelled the with- 
drawal of Father Rogel, was but one instance of the con- 
ditions reigning throughout the settlements. At St. 
Augustine the suffering was so great that on the arrival 
of a vessel to receive the military accounts it had been 
compelled to anchor outside of the harbour for fear the 
colonists would seize it and abandon the town,' The 
soldiers were almost naked, some going about in a shirt, 
which was all they possessed ; others dressed only in the 
wadded cotton armour, which had been adopted from 
the Mexicans as a protection against the arrows of the 
Indians. Their weapons were in as miserable a condi- 
tion : the arquebuses worn out or burst, the swords, which 
only some of them had, old and damaged, and no means 
were at hand with which to repair them. But one mar- 
ried man was left in the settlement in addition to the 
soldiers forming the garrison. A few horses still sur- 
vived, some fifteen or sixteen, but it was a difficult 
matter to keep them alive, for they were devoured by 
mosquitoes* or killed by the Indians, and no fodder had 
been raised for their food. As the Indian war still con- 
tinued," the colonists were exposed to the greatest risks 
in leaving the fort in search of food. For this reason 
they went without fish or meat and were compelled to 
subsist on corn and inferior meal. The fort, which, in 
the absence of more enduring material, was constructed 

' Aviles to Philip II,, Nov. 24, 1569, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., 
p. 190. 

* Both Le Challeux in the " Histoire Memorable" (reprint in Gaffarel, 
Hist, de la Floride, p. 461), and Meleneche in his deposition (Noriega to 
Philip II., March 29, 1565, MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navar- 
rete, tomo xiv., Doc. No. 33, fol. 4b), mention the plague of mosquitoes 
about the St. John's. 

'Aviles to Philip II., Nov. 24, 1569, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
190. 



35^ The Spanish Settlements 

of wood and sand, was rotting away on account of its 
age and the great humidity of the climate, and had even 
fallen down in places so as to afford hardly any protec- 
tion against the descent of pirates or the attacks of the 
natives.' 

The conditions at San Pedro on the island of Tacata- 
curu, where most probably was the blockhouse which 
Avil^s had ordered built, were equally bad. The soldiers 
were naked, half-armed, and famished, and the fort was 
falling into decay.'' It would appear that in April, 
1569, succour had been sent to Las Alas from Spain,' but 
it had also brought with it more mouths to feed, and 
during the summer Aviles's brother, Bartolome, had 
himself departed for Spain, taking with him the renewed 
complaints of the unpaid soldiers.* He probably also 
bore with him the demands of Las Alas and Gover- 
nor Marques for their salaries as Accountant and Treas- 
urer of Florida respectively, offices to which they had 
been appointed by Aviles, since payments to them had 
been stopped owing to some Court intrigue.^ 

Patiently the sorely tried colony waited for the arrival 
of the much-needed help, while Aviles in Spain pressed the 
necessity of sending reinforcements to protect the farmers 
from the natives and urged the fear of a descent upon the 
coast by Hawkins, who was reported to be preparing a 
great armada, and predicted the imminent abandonment 
of the forts by the desperate soldiery," unless help was 

' " Diligencias hechas en Sevilla con motivo de la venida de Esteban de las 
Alas de la Florida, 1570," ibid., tomo ii., pp. 572, 578, 579, 580, 582-584, 
587, 588. 

2 "Diligencias," 1570, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 578-580, 583, 584, 587. 

^Barcia, Ensayo, Aho MDLXIX., p. 138. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Nov. 20, 1569, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
185. 

^Aviles to Philip II., May 12, 1568, ibid., tomo ii., p. 178. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 4, \<-sbQj,ibid., tomo ii., p. 195; Dec. 31, 
1569, ibid., tomo ii., p. 199 ; Jan. 4, 1570, ibid., tomo ii., p. 201. 



The Guale Mission 357 

soon forthcoming. But his old enemy, the Casa de Con- 
tratacidn, and other obstacles impeded the sailing of the 
fleet.' At last the patience of Las Alas became exhausted 
and he determined to take matters into his own hands, to 
reduce the garrisons of the three remaining forts, and, 
after abandoning Ays and Carlos, to sail himself for 
Spain with the troops he had withdrawn from the 
colony. 

In the month of June he equipped a vessel named the 
Espiritu Santo, and embarking with most of the garrison 
at St. Augustine, where he left but fifty soldiers in charge 
of Pedro Men^ndez Aviles, a nephew of the Adelantado, 
he proceeded to Tacatacuru, where he reduced the garri- 
son to the same number, leaving Antonio Fernandez in 
command and taking with him Juan Gutierrez and the 
balance of the soldiers. At Santa Elena the same meas- 
ures were repeated ; Vandera was left in command, and 
the lieutenant-governor, Marques, who happened to be 
at San Felipe at the time, left for Havana, '' where he had 
been appointed to a similar office during the absence of 
Aviles. August 13, 1570, Las Alas set sail from Santa 
Elena and reached Cadiz on the 20th of October with 
about one hundred and twenty men, including a number 
of officers and officials. It was virtually an abandonment 
of the country, for only one hundred and fifty soldiers 
had been left there, with barely sufficient food and am- 
munition to sustain them a few months. It is probable 
that such was also the opinion of the King, for Las Alas 
had been but two weeks in Spain when Philip ordered a 
secret investigation ' to be made into the reason of his 
return. The result was the pitiable showing which we 
have just reviewed. But no further consequences seem 

'Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 22, 1569, ibid., tomo ii., p. 180; Nov. 27, 
1569, ibid., tomo ii., p. 191 ; Dec. 31, 1569, ibid., tomo ii., p. 196. 
'" Diligencias," 1570, ibid., tomo ii., p. 572. 
^ " Diligencias," 1570, ibid., tomo ii., p. 569, Nov. 3, 1570. 



358 The Spanish Settlements 

to have followed Las Alas' s desertion of his post, owing 
either to the imperative necessity under which he had 
acted, or, what is much more likely, to the powerful in- 
fluence which Avil^s was able to exert at Court in his 
favour. 



CHAPTER II 

THE VIRGINIA MISSION 

DURING his brief visit to Havana Marques wrote to 
Spain an account of the condition of affairs in 
Florida, and then returned to San Mateo, which for the 
third time had been put in a state of defence. On his 
arrival he was greeted with the news that shortly after 
the departure of Las Alas from St. Augustine the soldiers 
there had mutinied. Their intention was to seize a boat 
lying in the harbour and to put to sea in her without a 
pilot, sailors, anchors, or any equipment whatever, so 
eager were they to abandon the fort and escape from that 
fateful region. Marquis's only resource was to tempo- 
rise, and he wrote from San Mateo to the mutineers, 
that in case assistance did not arrive by the following 
month of March he would himself come to St. Augustine 
in April with his ships and transport them to Havana, 
together with all of the armament of the fort. From 
there he promised them that they should have leave to 
return to Spain to obtain their pay. He even authorised 
them to leave in any vessel they could secure in the 
event of his own failure to arrive at the time he had set, 
offering to meet a deputation of the garrison on board 
his ship to discuss the matter, and stating his willingness 
to lend them money with which to send one of their num- 
ber to Havana to purchase provisions. To this low ebb 
had discipline fallen.' 

' Traslado autorizado de una carta que escribio el Gobernador de la 
Florida Pedro Menendez Marques desde San Mateo a los soldados de el 

3?9 



360 The Spanish Settlements 

The failure of the Santa Elena missions had brought 
no abatement in the zeal of the Vice-Provincial, and at 
the very time when he had withdrawn the missionaries 
from Quale and Orista he was contemplating his depart- 
ure for new fields in the country about Chesapeake 
Bay, to which his attention had been turned by an Indian 
of that region, whom the Jesuits had found in Havana. 
This was Don Luis, who, it will be remembered, had ac- 
companied the Dominican friars, sent by Aviles prior to 
his departure for Spain to visit that neighbourhood, and 
who had returned with them to Spain when they aban- 
doned the enterprise.' On his arrival at Court Don Luis, 
who was intelligent and of an agreeable address, ingrati- 
ated himself to such an extent into the good-will of 
Philip II. that he lived at the royal expense during all 
of his stay. From Spain he had gone to Havana in com- 
pany with some Dominicans, who were on their way to 
Florida to assist them in their work, but, the mission 
having been abandoned, Don Luis, in his apparent zeal 
to convert his countrymen, joined the Jesuits under 
Father Segura on their departure for Florida.^ He 
was a valuable accession to their party on account of 
his rank among the natives, and his ability to act as 
interpreter. 

On the 5th of August, 1570, Father Segura sailed from 
Santa Elena for Chesapeake Bay with seven companions,' 
the Indian Don Luis, and a small boy named Alonso, 

fuerte de San Agustin de la Florida, Sept. 7, 1570, MS. Arch. Gen. de 
Indias, Seville, est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 9. 

' Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXVL, p. 123. 

* Alegre, Historia de la Compafiia de yesus en Nueva Espana, Mexico, 
1842, tomo i., p. 25. 

' Father Luis de Quiros, Brothers Gabriel Gomez, Sancho Cevallos, Juan 
Bautista Mendez, Pedro de Limares, Gabriel de Solis, who was related to 
Aviles, and Cristobal Redondo (Alegre, tomo i., p. 25). Quiros and 
Segura to [Hinestrosa ?], Dec. 12, 1570. Buckingham Smith, Florida 
MSS., 1J26. 1743, p. 255, MS. New York Historical Society. 



The Virginia Mission 361 

son of a settler at Santa Elena, who had been trained by 
the Fathers to serve at mass.' The journey was pro- 
longed owing to bad weather and difficulties in finding 
the region of which they were in search, and the Jesuits 
were compelled to share their provisions with the crew of 
the ship, so that on reaching their destination they had 
consumed all of their flour and two of the four barrels of 
biscuit with which they had provided themselves for the 
voyage. Finally they discovered the bay, up which they 
ascended, and on the loth of September reached the 
province of Axacan,* in Virginia, where they entered a 
river and landed. They found the country poor and 
sparsely inhabited owing to a prolonged drought of six 
years, and the famine which had followed in its wake had 
killed some of the inhabitants and driven others to change 
their abode. All the corn of the scant harvests had been 
eaten ; the forest fruits had perished, as well as the roots 
upon which the natives subsisted, and what little food 
could still be found was obtained with great difficulty on 
account of the severity of the winter and the deep snow. 
Only a small number of the principal men of the tribe 
remained, "that they might die where their fathers 
had died." Some of these proved to be relatives of Don 
Luis, whom they received "as if he had risen from the 
dead and had come from heaven," and in their gratitude 
they gave the Fathers "the only thing the Indians had 
to offer," their "good will," writes Father Quiros. The 
Jesuits began their ministrations at once, and hearing 
that a three-year-old son of a chief, a brother of Don 
Luis, living seven or eight leagues from their landing- 
place, lay at the point of death, sent one of their number 
the night of their arrival to baptise him. 

On account of the low state of its supplies, it was 

' Pedro Fernandez de Pulgar, Historia general de la Florida, Biblioteca 
Nacional, Madrid, MSS. 2999, fol. 176. 
* See Appendix DD, Axacan. 



3^2 The Spanish Settlements 

impossible for the vessel which had brought the Fathers to 
remain any length of time at the harbour where the landing 
had been made, and on the following morning it departed 
on its return voyage, bearing a letter written by Father 
Quiros under the direction of the Vice-Provincial, who 
added a short postscript. This was the last message that 
was ever received from them. It described the desolate 
condition of the country, and showed in a pathetic way 
the utter dependence of the Jesuits in their isolated and 
distant mission upon the precarious assistance of the In- 
dians for the very food they had to eat. Both Fathers 
pleadingly insisted upon the absolute necessity of dis- 
patching a vessel to their succour with corn for the Indians 
to plant not later than the beginning of April of the fol- 
lowing year, if it was found impracticable to send it during 
the winter. As the Fathers proposed to establish their 
mission on a stream not far from the landing-place, they 
directed that the relief ship on reaching the river signal 
its presence by a bonfire at night or a column of smoke 
by day, and added a brief and indefinite description of 
the place to which they were going and of what little 
they had been able to learn from the natives of "the en- 
trance through the mountains and China." "Three or 
four days' journey from yonder," wrote Father Quiros, 
referring to the lower reach of the river which they had 
ascended, "were the mountains, and two of these days' 
journey were by a river, and one or two days' travel be- 
yond the mountains another sea is observed." 

Father Quiros concluded his letter with the remark that 
the Indians freely gave the Jesuits food from their own 
impoverished stores without expecting any return, and 
in order not to awaken their cupidity he requested that 
the crew of the relief ship be forbidden to trade with 
them, and that all articles of barter which the sailors 
might bring be deposited with Don Luis, who would pay 
them its equivalent, all bartering to be conducted only 



The Virginia Mission 363 

in accordance with the judgment of the Fathers,' Brief 
as the letter is, it is highly interesting, for it illustrates 
the spirit which has always distinguished the Society, the 
unselfish devotion of its missionaries, their bent for scien- 
tific investigation, and the policy which Father Segura 
probably intended to follow in the mission of the com- 
plete dependence of the natives upon the will of the 
missionaries, even in matters of trade. 

With the departure of the vessel, the Jesuits, conducted 
by the Indians, who carried their baggage for them, pro- 
ceeded to a neighbouring stream,'' which was but two 
leagues distant, and ascending it in canoes, fixed their 
settlement near a village governed by a younger brother 
of Don Luis. The Fathers erected there a hut and a 
small chapel, where mass was celebrated, and for some 
time Don Luis remained in their company, serving them 
as interpreter and preacher. Patiently they waited for 
the return of the vessel which was to bring succour from 
their compatriots; and when the winter sped by and 
nothing came, Don Luis, lured back to his native cus- 
toms, abandoned them under the pretence of preparing 
a place for their reception at another village. The 
Fathers were now reduced to providing for themselves, 
and searched the forest for herbs and roots on which to 
subsist. 

On the 2nd of February, 1571, four months having 
passed since their arrival in the Virginia wilderness, 
Father Segura determined to send Father Luis de Quiros 
with Brothers Gabriel de Solis and Juan Bautista Mendez 
to induce Don Luis to return, and the embassy started 
on its perilous mission. But they were marching to their 
martyrdom. Don Luis, completely alienated, had al- 
ready planned their death. He received them with a 

' Quiros and Segura to [Hinestrosa?], Dec. 12, 1570, Buckingham Smith, 
Florida MSS., 1526, 1643, PP- 355 ^t ^eq. 

^ See Appendix EE, The Site of the Segura Mission. 



364 The Spanish Settlements 

show of great friendship, promising to return on the fol- 
lowing day, and the Father with his two companions, 
believing his word, retraced his steps to the little cabin. 
The same night Don Luis collected a band of Indians, 
followed them, and, overtaking them on the way, received 
a friendly salutation from Father Quiros, who supposed 
him to be alone, for the darkness concealed the presence 
of his companions. The answer to the kindly greeting 
was a shower of arrows, which pierced the heart of the 
Jesuit, and he fell dead.' Then Don Luis stripped him 
of his possessions, while his companions with their clubs 
made an end of the two Brothers. 

But the savage purpose of the renegade was not yet 
fully attained, and in the course of a few days Don 
Luis again prepared to exterminate the surviving minis- 
ters of the faith which he had either professed as a mask 
to his evil intentions or else had been weaned from by 
his return to his native wilds. There still remained to 
the missionaries a few hatchets and knives, which served 
them in their daily offices, and Don Luis, fearing that 
they would defend themselves with these, employed a 
transparent strategy to disarm them. On the morning 
of the 8th of February "^ some Lidians were sent to borrow 
the hatchets of the Fathers in order to chop wood, and 
the simple Jesuits fell into the trap. Then Don Luis 
and his party descended upon them. On the way they 
encountered Brother Cevallos, who had gone to cut 
wood in the forest, and killed him. Then they attacked 
Father Segura and killed him with a blow on the head 
with an ax, and the remaining missionaries shared his fate. 

Only one person escaped, the little boy Alonso, who 

' Father Luis de Quiros was of a noble family of Xerez de la Frontera, 
and in 1566 had been rector of a college at the Albaycin at Granada. 
Pulgar, Historia general de la Florida, Bib. Nac, Madrid, MSS. 2999, 
fol. 175. 

■■'Tanner, Societas Militans, pp. 449-451. 



The Virginia Mission 3^5 

was saved by the brother of Don Luis, and upon whose 
account rests the story of the martyrdom of the Virginia 
missionaries. He was finally rescued from the Indians 
by Aviles, when, in 1571, the latter visited Axacan to 
wreak vengeance on the natives for the murder they had 
committed. Father Rogel has left us a legend of an in- 
cident which followed the death of the Jesuits typical of 
the stories which surround the career of the early mis- 
sionaries to the Indians: 

" It happened that an Indian, coveting the spoils, went to 
a coffer in which there was a crucifix, and wishing to open it 
or break into it, in order to extract its contents, fell dead on 
the spot as he began to unlock it. Then another Indian pos- 
sessed with the same covetousness, sought to follow the same 
intent, and likewise the same thing occurred. Then none 
dared further approach the coffer, but they preserve it to this 
day with much veneration and fear, without daring to approach 
it. And this was told me by some old soldiers who came from 
Florida of those who had been to Axacan, to whom it was told 
by the Indians how the coffer was still in the country and no 
one dares approach it, even now, after the lapse of forty 
years." ' 

' Alegre, tomo ii., p. 32 ; Andres Perez de Ribas, Historia de los Trivm- 
phos de nvestra Santa Fee, etc., Madrid, 1645, lib. xii., cap. 14, pp. 746- 
74g. There was a tradition that the crucifix was preserved in the Jesuit 
College at Guaraca {ibid., p. 749). Francisco Sacchini, Historia Societatis 
Jesu, Pars tertia, Romas, MDCL., pp. 323, 324; Pedro de Ribadeneyra, 
Vida del P. Fi-anciso de Borja, Madrid, 1592, fol. I4ib-i43 ; Vita Fran- 
cisi Borgia ... a P. Ribadeneira Hispanice scripta ; Latine vero ab 
And. Schotto Antverp, Moguntias, 1603, lib. iii., cap. 6, p. 257. (This is 
a translation of the preceding.) John Gilmary Shea, "The Segura Mis- 
sion" in the United States Catholic Magazine, 1846, vol. v., p. 604. This 
is based on the accounts given by Barcia and Garcilaso de la Vega. " The 
Spanish in the Chesapeake," in the Historical Magazine, 1859, vol. iii., p. 
268. This is based on the accounts of Barcia, Algambe, and Tanner. 
" The Log Chapel on the Rappahannock," in The Catholic World, March, 
1875, p. 847, a much more mature production than the two preceding, but, 
unfortunately, without references. 



366 The Spanish Settlements 

Father Rogel had been enjoined to send a ship to the 
assistance of the Virginia missionaries after the expiration 
of four months, and had made every effort to follow out 
his instructions. As soon as he could find a pilot ac- 
quainted with the coast he set sail for the Bay of Santa 
Maria in company with Brother Juan de Salcedo in a 
vessel commanded by Vincente Gonzalo. On reaching 
the harbour where the Jesuits were to have met him the 
absence of the signal which had been agreed upon between 
them awakened his suspicions, and he did not land. 
The savages, in order to induce him to come ashore, dis- 
guised some of their companions in the garments they 
had stolen from their victims, and, causing them to walk 
along the shore in sight of the ship, shouted out: "Come, 
here are the Fathers you seek." This grotesque strata- 
gem failed to deceive the rescuers, but rather confirmed 
their suspicions. At the same time two of the natives, 
casting themselves into the water, swam out to the ship, 
where they were seized and dragged aboard. Then, 
raising the anchor, Father Rogel immediately set sail for 
Havana, carrying the two Indians with him. In order ta 
avoid the full force of the Gulf Stream the vessel returned 
along the coast, close to the land, an opportunity which 
one of the Indians improved to make his escape, throw- 
ing himself into the water and swimming ashore. The 
other Indian was secured and taken to Havana, where 
every effort was made to learn from him the final fate of 
the missionaries, but without success. The party appears 
to have reached Havana about the time of the arrival of 
Aviles in July.' 

• Pulgar, Historia, fol. 176 ; Alegre, tomo i., p. 33 ; Ribas, lib. xii., cap. 
14, p. 748. 



CHAPTER in 

THE LAST VISIT OF AVILES TO FLORIDA 

IN addition to the unremitting care which he continued 
to bestow on his colony, Avil^s took advantage of his 
presence in Spain to present Philip the plans of the 
extended exploration and conquest which he had first 
conceived shortly after his arrival in Florida. Not even 
the disheartening news which reached him from time to 
time of starvation and mutiny, Indian wars, and French 
revenge could curb his enterprising and self-reliant tem- 
perament. Four months after his return from his first 
expedition to Florida he was already maintaining his 
favourite theory of a passage to the Pacific and to China 
by way of Chesapeake Bay,' and Fourquevaux informed 
Catherine that Philip was so taken with the proposition 
that he had advanced two hundred and thirty thousand 
crowns for the undertaking.^ Avil^s also called the at- 
tention of his master to the Portuguese settlements "on 
the coast of Florida in Newfoundland, the discovery of 
which was under his charge." According to his account 
the Portuguese had been fortifying themselves for two 
years at a place in the interior near some large Indian 
towns two hundred leagues away, and reached from 
Newfoundland by an arm of the sea, and were threaten- 
ing the passage to China and the Moluccas, unless they 
were driven out.^ 

' Advis au roi par le Prebtre, Nov. 30, 1567, DSpeches, p. 305. 
^ Fourquevaux to Catherine de' Medici, May 8, 1568, ibid., p. 358, 
' Deposition by Pedro Menendez (de Aviles) relating, among other mat- 
ters, to Portuguese settlements in Florida, and the urgent necessity of 

367 



368 The Spanish Settlements 

As if these considerations were not enough for his un- 
bounded ambition, Avil^s had also conceived the design 
of extending his domain to the confines of Mexico, 
and applied to the King for a licence to settle in the 
northern part of Panuco, "which was in Florida," giving 
as one of his titles to its possession the proximity of the 
country to the region he had already conquered, and in 
compliance with his suggestion a royal c^dula ' was dis- 
patched to the Audiencia of Mexico for its opinion. The 
Audiencia, jealous of his pretensions, reported adversely. 

" For measured by an air line from the corner of Panuco to 
the corner of Santa Elena," it said, " there are four hundred 
and fifty leagues, and it is a common practice among cosmo- 
graphers to add a third more of the way by land, on account 
of the sinuosities of the mountains, lagoons, and valleys which 
usually occur. And we are informed that they exist there in 
great number, and it is more difficult to conduct the road by 
the mountains, on account of the great ravines, and hollows 
and valleys, and the excessively mountainous condition of the 
county, so that the distance is not the eighty leagues which 
Pedro Menendez says, but six hundred according to this 
computation." 

Another reason for discountenancing the grant, and 
one more especially intended to appeal to the royal purse, 
was that the colonists "would extract silver there to mint 
for foreign kingdoms, or for where they chose, and would 
introduce all kinds of merchandise, without its being sub- 
ject to the proper accounting." The Audiencia also in- 
sisted that all of the turbulent element of the country 

provisioning the soldiers in Florida, March 28, 1568, Brit. Mus. Add. MSS., 
33.983, fol. 324. Aviles apparently thought that the Portuguese were in 
the vicinity of the range of mountains eighty leagues to the north of Chesa- 
peake Bay (see p. 212 in this volume), and not a great distance from the 
channel connecting the bay with the South Sea. 
' Dated Madrid, July 21, 1568. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 369 

would gather about the new colony, and it would become 
a source of trouble to New Spain. 

"The site he lays claim to settle is sixty leagues from 
Mexico, and in case the Rio del Espiritu Santo should have 
to be discovered in order to go to the point of Santa Elena, it 
would have to be done from this New Spain in order to avoid 
these inconveniences, and in no way does it profit the service 
of Your Majesty and the peace of this land, to accede to the 
pretensions of Pero Menendez," 

concludes the Audiencia.' 

The opinion is interesting as showing the extent of the 
geographical knowledge of the time among those having 
the best opportunities to be correctly informed. The 
concluding paragraph, relating to the short distance from 
the City of Mexico to the proposed Panuco settlement, 
raises more than a mere suspicion that the Audiencia 
seriously dreaded the presence of the enterprising Aviles 
in its neighbourhood, and was still mindful of Cor- 
t^s's dreams of independent conquest. And perhaps its 
caution was well advised, for the atmosphere of Mexico 
has possessed the peculiar property of disturbing the im- 
agination of soldiers from the time of Cortes to that of 
Bazaine. The protest of the Audiencia, however, could 
not check a man of such determination as the Adelan- 
tado, although it may have served the purpose of some- 
what delaying the execution of his plan. Four years 
later his request was granted and the limits of his Florida 
grant were extended west to the Rio Panuco "eighty 
leagues," and to the north to the confines of Mexico, 
and east, north-east, and north from Santa Elena.' 

' " Parecer que da a S. M. la Audiencia de Nueva Espana, sobre lo pro- 
puesto por Pero Menendez de Abiles, de poblar en el rio de Panuco que as 
en la Florida," Mexico, Jan. 19, 1569. MS. Direc. de Hidrog. Madrid, 
Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv, Doc. No. 42. 

-"Real Cedula ordenando al Adelantado Pero Menendez de Aviles la 
continuacion de la conquista de la Florida por la parte de Panuco," 
Madrid, Feb. 23, 1573, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 368. 



370 The Spanish Settlements 

Throughout the month of February, 1568, Avil^s was 
in Biscay preparing the fleet that was to sail for Flanders, 
which at the time it was thought that he would himself 
command.' In the summer he appears to have made his 
fifth voyage to the Indies, returning in the summer or 
early fall of the following year, between which terms it is 
among the possibilities that he made one visit to Florida 
as recorded in a previous chapter." On reaching Spain 
he found a letter from the austere Pius V., a man of 
deep but rigid religious convictions, congratulating him 
upon his appointment as Governor of Florida, and en- 
joining upon him "the good sense and discretion" which 
he should observe in his government of the Indians, "to 
effect the increase of our holy Catholic faith, and gain 
more souls to God." With the same sound sense which 
he recommended to the observation of the Adelantado, 
the Pope dwells upon the moral standard to be main- 
tained among the colonists. 

" But nothing is more important in the conversion of these 
Indians and idolaters, ' ' he observes, ' ' than to endeavour by 
all means to prevent scandal being given by the vices and im- 
moralities of such as go to those western parts. This is the 
key of this holy work, in which is included the whole essence 
of your charge." ' 

During most of 1570 Avil^s appears to have been at 
sea, protecting the arriving and departing fleets from the 
depredations of pirates, probably accompanying the out- 
going India squadrons on their way to the Canaries, and 

' Fourquevaux to Charles IX., Feb. i8, 1568, De'peches, p. 328. 

2 See Appendix CC, The Second Voyage of Aviles to Florida, p. 457, 
in this volume. 

*Pius V. to Aviles, Aug. 18, 1569, Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 299. 
English version in Shea's The Catholic Church in Colonial Days. New- 
York, 1886, p. 145. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 371 

returning with the treasure ships.' On land his time was 
actively occupied with his Cuban Government in addition 
to his other cares. 

Ever since the arrival of Aviles in Spain rumours had 
been afloat of his impending return to Florida, mostly in 
connection with the discovery of the Northwest Passage," 
but his various occupations had so far prevented his de- 
parture. With the arrival of Las Alas, the knowledge of 
the defenceless and desperate condition of his colony 
must have pressed heavily upon him, but it was only in 
the spring of 1571 that he was enabled again to visit his 
conquest, and, as it happened, for the last time. May 
15th he was at San Lucar to hasten the sailing of his 
fleet, which had been delayed by the weather, the sinking 
of one of his ships, and the unremitting meddling of the 
officials of the Casa de Contratacion.' On the 17th of the 
month he set sail with seven galleons, two hundred and 
fifty sailors and soldiers, and four hundred persons in 
addition.* So great was the danger from pirates to which 
a small fleet was exposed that secret instructions appoint- 
ing a meeting-place were left for Diego Flores, who was 
to follow him with two galleons, and Las Alas remained 
in Spain to afford Flores his assistance.* 

' See Appendix CC, The Second Voyage of Aviles to Florida, p. 457, 
in this volume. 

Tourquevaux to Charles IX., Aug., 1567, De'peches, p. 263. Gaffarel, 
p. 452, dates this letter Sept. 12, 1567. Same to same, Oct. 15, 1567, 
D^peches, p. 280; Apr. 6, 1568, ibid., p. 345. Same to Catherine de' 
Medici, May 8, 1568, ibid., p. 358. Advis au Roi par le Prebtre, Nov. 30, 
1567, ibid., p. 305. 

^Aviles to Philip II., May 15, 1571, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii, pp. 
222, 224. 

* Aviles to Philip II., July 22, 1571, ibid., tomo ii., pp. 228, 235. This 
letter (p. 235) contains a statement that "mi muger y casa "were in a 
vessel of the fleet which sailed for Carthagena. It must be an error of the 
copyist, for Aviles intended to return shortly to Spain and could not have 
taken his family with him. 

* Aviles to Philip II., May 16, 1571, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., 
p. 226. 



372 The Spanish Settlements 

July 3rd Aviles reached Havana, where he spent a few 
days attending to the sailing of the armada, which was to 
escort the returning treasure fleet. During his stay he 
lost some men by desertion, and as a considerable num- 
ber of his company had fallen ill, he was obliged to put 
the sick ashore. Here he found his nephew, Pedro 
Menendez de Aviles, whom Las Alas had left in charge 
of St. Augustine, and who had fallen very ill,' and he 
learned from Father Rogel the fate which had over- 
whelmed the Segura mission. His resolution was quickly 
taken, and he determined to visit Axacan and verify the 
details of the death of the missionaries. Taking with him 
Father Rogel and two Brothers,* he promptly set sail for 
Santa Elena, which he reached on the 22nd of July. He 
found the small garrison at San Felipe in a satisfactory 
condition, and the natives "humble and obedient," 
but engaged in war with "the Indians friendly to the 
French."^ "For the Indians, as a rule," he observes, 
"are better friends of the French, who leave them to live 
in freedom, than to my people and the Teatines (monks), 
who restrict their way of living ; and the French can ac- 
complish more [with them] in one day than I in a year." 
To increase the attachment of the natives to his interests 
he sent to Campeche for supplies to distribute among 
them.* 

Having reinforced the garrison at San Felipe, his next 
step was to proceed to Axacan. On his arrival he found 
that the Indians had fled to the mountains. Aviles, who 
was determined to read the savages a lesson which they 
should not forget, disembarked with a company of soldiers 

'Aviles to Philip II., July 22, 1571, ibid., tomo ii., p. 228. 

^ Alegre, tomo i., p. 34. 

^ It does not appear what Aviles means by this expression, unless he 
attributed the continuance of the Indian war to French influence. 

* Aviles to Philip II., July 22, 1571, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
228 et scq. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 373 

to go in search of them, but only succeeded in captur- 
ing eight. He had, however, the good fortune to rescue 
the lad Alonso, and from him he learned the details of 
the cruel death that had overtaken the missionaries. The 
boy also informed him that the prisoners which he had 
taken were among their murderers, and the Adelantado 
hung them all from the yard-arms of his ship, after they 
had been converted and baptised by Father RogeL 
Father Rogel asked Aviles for a company of soldiers to 
search for the bodies of the martyred missionaries and to 
give them burial, but the season was far advanced, Aviles 
anxious to return, and the request of the Father had to 
be denied.' This was the last of the Jesuit missions on 
our eastern coast. In July, 1572, Father Sedeno went 
to Mexico to prepare the way for the first Jesuit mission 
to that country, and from there he was sent to the Philip- 
pines, where he passed the remainder of his life.' Father 
Rogel lived to a ripe old age, for the legend of the cruci- 
fix related by him was written forty years after the 
martyrdom of Father Segura and his companions. 

It was late in the fall when Aviles arrived at St. Augus- 
tine, and after attending to the necessities of the garrison 
he set sail on the 20th of December for Havana, with the 
Jesuits and Alonso, whom Father Rogel had taken with 
him, in two small tenders and a bark. While pursuing 
the usual course along the coast the vessels were over- 
taken by a storm which separated them. The bark suc- 
ceeded in making Havana, A second boat was driven 

' Pulgar, Historia general de la Florida, fol. 176b, Biblioteca Nacional, 
Madrid, MSS. 2999. Ribas, Historia de los Trivmphos de nvestra Santa 
Fee, etc., Madrid, 1645, lib. xii., cap. ii., pp. 748, 749. Alegre, tomo i., 
p. 34. Labor Evangelica, Ministerios Apostolicos de los Obreros de la Com- 
pania de Jesvs, Fvndacion y Progresses de sv Provincia en las Islas Filipinos. 
Historiadores por el Padre Francisco Colin. Parte primera, Madrid, 
MDCLXIII., lib. ii., cap. i., p. 168. 

^Alegre, tomo i., p. 50. Geographia Historica, El P. Pedro Murillo 
Velarde, Madrid, 1752, lib. ix., cap. ii., p. 80. 



374 The Spanish Settlements 

ashore in the province of Ays,' where the crew was at- 
tacked by the natives. Unable to defend themselves 
because the water had rendered their arquebuses useless, 
they were all killed and their boat was burned. 

The boat containing Avil^s and the Jesuits was cast 
ashore near Cape Canaveral, probably not far from the 
locality where Ribaut had suffered a like fate ; its oc- 
cupants, some thirty in number, escaped to the land, 
constructed a kind of fort with the wreckage, and with a 
few arquebuses, which were still uninjured by the wet, 
defended themselves from the attacks of the Indians until 
nightfall, when they set out in the direction of St. Augus- 
tine, a distance of thirty-one leagues. Struggling onward 
through the forest, crossing the streams in canoes, in great 
danger from the sea, from which they managed to escape 
"by means of some reliques which the companion of 
Father [Rogel] cast upon the waters," ^ and, fighting the 
Indians, they accomplished the entire distance, finally 
reaching St. Augustine without the loss of a single mem- 
ber of the company. They came as a timely reinforce- 
ment, for a few days after their arrival three large English 
vessels, fully manned, attacked the town, but were suc- 
cessfully driven off. 

The boat which escaped to Havana had announced 
that the other two vessels would arrive the following day. 
As time passed without news of them or of the Adelan- 
tado, the report spread that he had been lost. At the 
end of four months a small vessel set sail on the loth of 
April, 1572, in search of Aviles, and finally found him at 
St. Augustine, where he embarked in time to reach 
Havana on Good Friday. Here he remained but two 
weeks, and, having sent the news of his arrival to New 
Spain, set out again in the same vessel for Puerto de 

' Osorio in his letter of May 24, 1572 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
487) says " Ris." This is in all probability a misprint for " Ais." 
- Pulgar, Historia general de la Florida, fol. 173b, 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 375 

Plata, in Hispaniola. The date of his return to Spain 
does not appear, but it is not improbable that he sailed 
with the treasure fleet during the summer of 1572, leaving 
Pedro Menendez Marques in charge of his government. 
At the time of his arrival at Havana Las Alas was already 
on his way to Florida and the West Indies.' 

As this was the last visit of Aviles to the country 
which he had undertaken to subdue and colonise, it will 
be of interest to learn the condition in which he finally 
left it and to consider what profit he derived from the 
enormous expense to which he and his friends had been 
put in its conquest and maintenance. We have seen that 
Aviles, who at the outset had so keenly appreciated the 
importance of cultivating the soil,^ sent out farmers at 
different times to colonise his province.^ These were 
settled for the most part on the little island at Santa 
Elena, on which was situated Fort San Felipe. There 
are two accounts of the condition of the colony, of par- 
ticular interest because they emanate from the colonists 
themselves, and as a consequence present their side of 
the story, which has an unhappy ring of truth about it, 
despite what may be some inevitable exaggeration. 

In 1572 the settlement on the island, in addition to 
soldiers in the garrison, consisted of some twenty-odd 
farmers with their families, most of whom had been 

'Osorio to , May 24, 1572, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 487. 

In the " Declaracion de Juan de Saravia vecino de Sevilla sobre las nuevas 
de la Armada y flota de Indias que se apresaba del cargo del General D? 
Cristoval de Eraso," Seville, Oct. 19, 1572 (MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, 
Col. Navarrete, tomo xxii., Doc. No. 7), it appears that Aviles had ordered 
the Governor of Havana to notify him in Florida of the arrival of the 
galleons in order that he might return to Spain with Eraso's armada. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Sept. 11, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomoii.,p. 83. 

^Aviles to Philip II., Dec. 3, 1570, ibid., tomo ii., p. 208, in which he 
says he has sent out 200 farmers. Same to same, Nov. 27. 1569, ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 190, where he mentions the presence of farmers in Guale. 
Same to same, Nov. 29, 1566, ibid., tomo ii., p. 170, where he refers to the 
farmers in Florida. 



37^ The Spanish Settlements 

farmers and raisers of stock in Spain. These the Adelan- 
tado had induced to emigrate to Florida by representing 
to them the fertility of the country, "as good as the plain 
of Carmona," says one of the Andalusians, the memory 
of that beautiful valley watered by the Guadalquivir and 
dotted with olive groves and orange trees rising before 
his eyes. The farmers were promised an assignment of 
good farming land and twelve head of stock apiece, and 
some of them had even brought cows and sheep of their 
own. They were soon at work planting corn and wheat, 
oats and pumpkins, chick-peas and beans, and perhaps 
the sugar-cane, as Fontanedo ' informs us; and cows, 
horses, sheep, and goats were brought to the fort for 
their use. Pigs were given to them with the curious 
condition, according to one of the deponents, that they 
were not to be slaughtered for ten years, after the expira- 
tion of which the increase was to be divided between the 
settlers and Aviles. 

As already stated, the island was small and low, sub- 
ject to be flooded by the sea at the high tides, and the 
soil sandy and unproductive. The frost and cold of 
winter proved extremely trying to the crops. During 
April and May it rained continually. The wheat failed 
entirely ; worms, rats, and moles devoured the seed which 
had been planted, and the only vegetables that gave any 
results were the pumpkins and melons. The cattle, 
roaming at large over the island, got into what little corn 
that grew and ate it up. The cows and sheep perished, 
owing, as the settlers thought, to the extensive marshes. 
The Indians killed the pigs, and as starvation pressed 
upon them the balance of the stock was consumed by the 
soldiers and the wretched settlers. For a while, on the 
arrival of relief at St. Augustine or Santa Elena, rations 
of corn and wine, oil and vinegar were regularly distrib- 
uted among them, and, as we have seen, pigs were sent 

' " Memoria," Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo v., p. 544. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 377 

to them a second time on the arrival of Aviles in June, 
1566.' But these soon shared the fate of the other pigs, 
and as the other garrisons felt the pressure of necessity, 
the supplies became less frequent. Then the settlers, 
driven by hunger, hunted the shores for oysters, sea- 
food, and herbs. What little corn could be obtained was 
laboriously pounded in a mortar, but the sick were unable 
to eat it, and some of the settlers died from starvation. 

Nor was this the only misfortune which befell them. 
Juan de la Vandera, who was in charge of the fort and 
beyond the reach of control, exercised the office of a 
tyrant and plundered the colonists without mercy. He 
sold the provisions to his own advantage. When a 
settler refused him anything that he wished he caused 
him to be beaten, and when his permission was asked to 
leave the country and go to Havana, he had the petitioner 
seized and imprisoned in the fort and condemned to the 
payment of penalties which enabled him to get possession 
of his property, and he took from the settlers all of their 
arms. It was a virtual slavery, and only by trickery and 
stratagem was it possible to leave the island. One of the 
exiles relates how he escaped from Santa Elena on the 
pretence of returning to Spain for more colonists. Four 
years later, after frequent and useless applications to 
Aviles for permission to abandon Santa Elena, the in- 
habitants of the settlement, "ruined, aged, weary, and 
full of sickness," "maltreated and insulted by the gover- 
nors," petitioned the King to the number of twenty-three 
for leave to return to Spain and for a vessel in which to 
make the voyage. The conditions were still unchanged, 
and the notary public was an inexperienced boy under the 
legal age. 

At St. Augustine there appear to have been in the 
neighbourhood of a dozen farmers. The supplies which 
Arciniega had brought from Spain had profited them 

' Aviles to Philip II., Jan. 30, 1566, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 144,. 



37^ The Spanish Settlements 

little, for peculation had been rife, and it was said that 
the officials in charge of the settlement had reloaded 
them on the very vessels in which they had come and 
sent them to be sold on their own account in the Wind- 
ward Islands and elsewhere in the Indies. It is true that 
the land at St. Augustine was better than at Santa Elena, 
and the plantings which the settlers had made were more 
successful. But though stock was distributed to the 
farmers, as had been done at Santa Elena, it suffered the 
same fate as elsewhere, for many of the pigs were killed 
by the Indians, and the balance was given no time for 
natural increase, being eaten up by the colonists and the 
soldiery in their extremity. At San Mateo and at San 
Pedro on Cumberland Island there appear to have been 
no colonists.' 

So far as the discovery of mineral wealth was concerned, 
an equal want of success had attended the conquest. 
Fourquevaux, it is true, had reported the finding of a 
gold mine thirty or forty leagues beyond San Mateo, on 
the authority of one of the captains who had accom- 
panied Aviles ; and also the discovery of a mine of azurite 
of the finest quality.^ But these stories find no confirma- 
tion in any of Men^ndez's letters ; and as the only expedi- 
tion made into the gold-bearing region of the country, that 
of Juan Pardo, occurred subsequent to Fourquevaux's 
report and was without results, the alleged discoveries 
may be dismissed as merest rumours. The anticipated 
pearl fisheries had proved as illusory. As a consequence 

' Informacion hecha en Madrid por el Licenciado Gamboa sobre cosas 
tocantes a la Florida, Madrid, Feb. 4, 1573, MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, 
est. 2, caj. I, leg. 1/27 ; Instancia a S. M. de Francisco Ruiz en nombre de 
Ids vecinos y pobladores de la Florida solicitando cambiar de residencia 
acompaiiada de informacion de testigos, MS., idid., est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 16; 
Relacion de las cosas que han pasado en la Florida tocantes al servicio de 
Dios y del Key. Vino con carta de Juan Mendez, 6 de Abril, 1584, MS., 
Hid., est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 16, p. i. 

^ Advis au Roi par le Prebtre, Nov. 30, 1567, Ddpeches, p. 305. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 379 

trade and commerce were non-existent, and the vast con- 
quest, undertaken at such an expense of lives and money, 
reduced itself to two or three miserable outposts contain- 
ing a handful of starving and naked soldiers, stationed in 
the neighbourhood of the Florida Straits to protect the 
passage of the treasure fleets and to prevent the descent 
of foreign powers upon its shore. How utterly inade- 
quate these outposts were for the latter purpose we see 
by the ease with which Drake sacked the city of St. 
Augustine but a few years later. It will be recalled that 
the salary of the Adelantado was to be paid out of the 
produce of the country without recourse to the King in 
event of his failure ' to find it, and that some, at least, of 
the royal ofificials in Florida were in the same case,' so the 
anxiety of Aviles on his own account, as well as on theirs, 
will be easily understood. 

The Spanish occupation had led to the discovery of 
two plants — the sassafras and the nut grass. The de- 
privation of food to which the soldiers were subjected, 
the roots and herbs which they were driven to eat, 
coupled with the drinking of impure water, caused much 
sickness, which the Spaniards alleviated to a considerable 
extent by the use of the sassafras, whose virtues they 
had learned from the French. A decoction of the root 
was prepared, which was drunk in and out of season, at 
every meal and even when fasting, the well using it in 
place of wine. The Florida soldiers who arrived in Spain 
in 1569 were strong and healthy, which they attributed 
to the use of the root. Dr. Nicolas Monardes, who wrote 
at the time a treatise upon the medicinal plants of the 
West Indies, relates that 

"these [Florida] soldiours doeth trust so muche in this woodde, 
that I beyng one daie emongest many of them, informing my 

' " Asiento," March 30, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii,, p, 420, 
''Aviles to Philip II., May 12, 156S, ibid., tomo ii., p. 178. 



380 The Spanish Settlements 

self of the thynges of this Tree, that moste parte of them 
tooke out of their pokettes, a good peece of this woodd, and 
said; Maister, doe you see here the woodde, that euery one 
of vs doth bryng for to heale vs with all if we do fall sicke, as 
we haue been there; and thei began to praise so muche, to 
confirme the meruelous workes of it, with so many examples 
of them that were there that surely I gaue greate credite vnto 
it." 

The Indians, he says, called it pauamc, and he informs 
us, in the curious medical terminology of the period, that 
it is cold and dry in the second degree, although its bark 
reaches the third degree ; and among its marvellous prop- 
erties it relieves the liver, drives fevers away, restores 
the appetite, voids the stone, quiets toothache, cures 
gout, preserves from pest, and is most serviceable in all 
cold sicknesses.' 

The nut grass, a plant resembling the galanga, was 
described by the Spaniards at the time as having roots 
which presented the appearance of a string of beads, and 
the nodules when cut apart were dry and hard as pebbles, 
black without and white within, and of an aromatic 
flavour. The Indians crushed the herb into a powder, 
with which they rubbed their bodies when they bathed, 
saying it refreshed the skin, and they also used the pow- 
der for the stomach-ache. The plant grew plentifully 
about Santa Elena, and the Spaniards used it for the 

' Nicolas Monardes, Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nues- 
tras Indias occidentales, que sirven en medicitia, Sevilla, 1565-15 74. The 
translation given in the text is that of the English version, entitled : loyfvll 
Nevves oviof the newe founde worlde . . . Englished by John Framp- 
ton, London, 1577, fol. 47. There is a cut of the tree in Frampton's ver- 
sion on fol. 45b, which is reproduced by De Laet in his Histoire du 
Nouveau Mojide, Leide, 1640, p. 127, where he gives an account of its 
properties. The 2nd edition of the Latin version of Monardes's work is 
entitled : Simplicium medicamentorum ex novo orbe delatorum, quorwn in 
medica usus est, historia . . . Latino . . . donata ... a 
Carolo Clusio, Antverpite, 1579. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 381 

same purpose as did the Indians, besides discovering 
other virtues which it possessed, and held it in such 
esteem that all the soldiers carried rosaries of beads 
made from the roots.' 

In 1573, a year after the protest of the Santa Elena 
colonists, Pedro Menendez Marques made an extended 
reconnaissance of the entire coast, from the head of the 
Florida Keys to Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately there 
was no cosmographer in the party, so the report of 
Marques was unaccompanied by maps. The original 
extensive and detailed report which he prepared for the 
Council of the Indies was given to the cosmographer, 
Juan Lopez de Velasco, who probably received it after he 
had completed his Geografia y Descripcioii Universal de las 
Indias,'^ since his great work gives no details whatever of 
this discovery. The report was subsequently lost, and 
we are indebted to the historian Barcia for a brief of the 
original which escaped a similar fate. The coast was 
carefully examined and its trend noted. Depths and 
distances were recorded. Shoals and bars, bays, rivers, 
and headlands were set down, with conspicuous objects 
by which the entrance of the harbours could be recog- 
nised, and sailing directions were also given. Marques 
also appears to have entered the Bay of Santa Maria and 
explored it for some distance. It is not improbable that 
he was accompanied in this expedition by the pilot Vin- 
cente Gonzalo, on account of his previous familiarity with 
the coast, for we find Gonzalo again visiting the Chesa- 
peake at a later date. During the course of his expedi- 
tion Marques rescued a number of Christian captives 
from the Indians and brought them back with him to 

'Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXVII., p. 131. Mr. Frederick V. Coville, 
Botanist of the Department of Agriculture, thinks the plant is in all proba- 
bility the nut grass, Cyperus rotundus, which has an aromatic odour, similar 
to but less pronounced than that of the true Asiatic galanga. 

^ First published at Madrid in 1894 by the learned Don Justo Zaragoza. 



3^2 The Spanish Settlements 

Santa Elena. Avil^s had in the meantime exerted him- 
self to send missionaries in the place of those who had 
withdrawn from the province, and on the arrival of 
Marques at Santa Elena he found there a number of 
Franciscan friars who had been sent out to him from 
Spain/ 

Pedro Men^ndez de Avil^s has filled too prominent a 
place in this part of our history to be dismissed without 
casting a glance at the few remaining years of his event- 
ful career. On his return to Spain he continued his 
active employment in naval affairs, his attention being 
particularly given to the equipment of a fleet directed 
against the English corsairs and Cimarron negroes,^ and 
on the loth of February, 1574, he was appointed Captain- 
General of the formidable armada which Philip was form- 
ing ostensibly with the view of clearing the western coast 
and the Flanders channel of pirates, an armada of one 
hundred and fifty sail and twelve thousand men accord- 
ing to some, of three hundred sail and twenty thou- 
sand men according to others/ Not on this account did 
Avil^s neglect his Florida interests, for in the early spring 
of 1573 he obtained a royal licence to send fifty families 
from the Asturias to Florida, an undertaking he was in 
haste to put into execution,* while his remarkable ver- 
satility is shown in his invention of an instrument for 

' Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXIII., p. 146. On p. 149 he says nine 
monks, but note that the two following references mention only six. " Real 
orden a los officiales de Sevilla que prouean de lo necesario a seis religiosos 
q uan a la florida." "Real orden al comisario general de i fran'^o que 
nombre seis religiosos que uayan a la florida." Both dated Madrid, Feb. 
23, 1573, MSS. Arch. Gen, de Indias, Seville, est. 154, caj. i, leg. iS, tomo 
i,, fol. 82. 

* Vigil, Noticias, pp. 31, 177-179. 

^ Ibid., pp. 31, 32 ; Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., pp. ccvi, ccix. 

'• " Real licencia concedida a Pero Menendez de Aviles para Uevar, previa 
informacion, cinquenta familias asturianas a la Florida," Madrid, March 3, 
1573, Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo ii., p. 373 ; Aviles to Marques, Sept. 8, 1574. 
ibid., tomo ii., pp. 290, 291. 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 383 

measuring longitude,' for which he was conceded a ten- 
years' patent. 

In the midst of these various and engrossing occupa- 
tions his heart yearned for the white sands and palmetto 
groves of Florida, brilliant amidst her torrid waters. 
Almost his last thoughts and last words were for her. 
September 8, 1574, he wrote to his nephew and lieutenant, 
Marques : 

" Expressing to His Majesty my discontent at finding my- 
self separated from Florida, he has graciously told me that as 
often as it is possible to allow me to return he will very gladly 
do so. And I hope to God he will do so in the spring, for I 
do not doubt that the affair of Flanders will be arranged this 
winter. And with that I shall be free to go at once to Florida, 
not to leave it for the rest of my life; for that is the sum of my 
longings and happiness. May our Lord permit it, if possible, 
and if He sees fit." ^ 

Whether the armada assembled at Santander was really 
intended for Flanders, or, as has been supposed, ' was to 
attack England, Aviles was not destined to lead it, nor to 
see his beloved Florida again. Nine days after writing 
the letter just quoted he died at Santander from an at- 
tack of indigestion." He was buried first at Llanes, but 
his body was transferred in 1591 to the Church of St. 
Nicholas in his native city of Aviles, where it now re- 
poses in a niche on the Gospel side of the altar, with 
this inscription : 

" Here lies interred the very illustrious cavalier Pedro 
Mene? de Aviles, native of this town, Adelantado of the Pro- 
vinces of Florida, Commander of the Holy Cross of La ^arfa 

' Real cedula of Feb. 17, 1573, Pardo, ibid., tomo ii., p. 366. 

* Aviles to Marques, Sept. 8, 1574, ibid., tomo ii., p. 288. 

^ Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i,, p. ccix, and see Aviles to Marques, Sept, 
8, 1574, ibid., tomo ii., p. 290. 

* Ibid., tomo ii., p. 513. 



3^4 The Spanish Settlements 

of the Order of Santiago and C" Gen*' of the Ocean Sea and 
of the Catholic Armada which the Lord PhiHp II. assembled 
against England in the year 1574, at Santander, where he died 
on the 17th of September of the said year being fifty-five years 
of age." ' 

The only ornament on the tomb is his coat-of-arms, placed 
above the chest which contains his remains. 

The testimony of his companions in arms goes to con- 
firm the statement made by his biographers that Avil^s 
died poor.^ He left two daughters, Doiia Catalina, who 
married Hernando de Miranda, and after his death Her- 
nando de las Alas ; and Dona Maria, who married Diego 
de Velasco. All of his Florida interests, except the 
marquisate, were bequeathed to his daughter Catalina, 
who also inherited his title of Adelantado of Florida, 
while Pedro Men^ndez Marques was authorised to prose- 
cute the Panuco conquest. The marquisate was left to 
his daughter Dofia Maria, ^ wife of Diego de Velasco, and 
her sons, with the singular condition that in the event of 
male issue the heir, on reaching twenty years of age, was 
to reside with his wife and household in Florida for a 
period of ten years, "for my ultimate object and desire is 
to procure that Florida be settled in perpetuity, that the 
Holy Gospel be extended and planted in those provinces." 
The same condition was imposed upon the Pdnuco in- 
heritance." 

' Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXXIV, p. 151; Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo 
i., p. ccxxiv, and tomo ii, p. 337, on which he gives a cut of his tomb 
reproduced from a photograph. 

* Barcia, Ensayo, Ano MDLXXIV., p. 151. And see p. 126, note 3 in 
this volume. 

^ Ruidiaz {La Florida, tomo i., p. ccxxvi.) says she was a professed nun at 
Avila, but the will specifically speaks of her as married at the time to Diego 
Velasco {ibid., vol. ii., p. 51S). 

■* " Testamento del Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles otorgado en 
Sanlucar de Barrameda el 7 de Enero de 1574," ibid., tomo ii., p. 516. 
Further details will be found in Ruidiaz, who at the end of the second 



The Last Visit of Aviles to Florida 385 

Avil^s was unquestionably a man of unusual talent, 
enterprise, and courage, of indomitable energy and will, 
of remarkable self-control and tact. Every emergency 
was anticipated, every obstacle was surmounted with 
promptness and dexterity. Fatigue and weariness, hesi- 
tation, doubt, perplexity were alike unknown to him. 
However strange the circumstances in which he found 
himself he was never at a loss for one moment as to how 
they should be met. His experience in naval affairs and 
more particularly in the West Indies exceeded that of 
any captain of the day. His loyalty to his King and to 
his religion were without question, "for he considered 
nothing but the service of God and of his Majesty, with- 
out looking to human interests," said one of his soldiers.' 
He could descend to the consideration of the smallest 
details and order them with practical common-sense while 
indulging in dreams of the conquest of a continent. He 
shared with his soldiers their privations, and led them in 
person in their most dangerous undertakings. For their 
sakes he could receive an insult with a bow, and pawn 
his own clothes. As a result "he was much loved, 
feared, prized, and respected."'' 

There is but one blot on his fame, that of the Matanzas 
massacre, nor is the shame of it palliated when it is as- 
cribed not to fanaticism or bigotry, but to the reasons 
assigned by his master, — the desire not to risk the lives of 
his own people. If this was, indeed, his motive, it was 
a worthy one. But when the genius and resourcefulness 
of Aviles are considered it is reasonable to believe that 
had he but sought it some other expedient would have 
presented itself rather than the bloody one to which he 

volume (p. 627) gives a list of the Adelantados of Florida. Barcia in his 
Ensayo gives a plate (facing p. i) of the " Casa de los Adelantados de la 
Florida," and Vigil in his Noiicias gives a variety of genealogical data. 

' Grauiel Justiniano, Ruidi'az, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 622. 

^ Meras in ibid., tomo i., p. 131. 

**. 2S. 



386 The Spanish Settlements 

resorted. But we must not allow our judgment to be so 
outraged by this cold-blooded murder as to blind us to 
his signal merits, and Pedro Men^ndez de Aviles surely 
deserves to take rank among the greatest and most gifted 
of the early discoverers and conquerors of the New- 
World. 



APPENDIX A 

REGISTERED GOLD AND SILVER IMPORTED INTO SPAIN FROM 
THE WEST INDIES, 1560-1569 

Royal Revenues from the Indies. — In 1561 the royal 
revenues from the Indies are said to have averaged, one year 
with another, 600,000 ducats. (" Memoria de las riendas y 
patrimonio del rey de Espania [i-^V] dell ano 156 1." Brit. 
Mus. Add. MSS., Cotton Vesp. C, vii., fol. 216.) In 1564 the 
royal revenues from the Indies were 225 " cuentos " (Brit. 
Mus. Add. MSS. Eg., 1873, fol. 225); that is to say, 225,- 
000,000 maravedis. (See Relacion Breue, etc., Brit. Mus. 
Add. MSS., 8691, fol. 36b, which says: " Contados al uso, 
que se asientan todos en los libros Reales, que es a cuentos, 
y marauedis. Cada cuento son diez uezes cien mil marauedis. ") 
In 1564 a ducat was still approximately 350 maravedis, so that 
we have about 600,000 ducats for the total revenue. 

The following table shows the royal revenue from Mexico 
for the years 1560-69 inclusive. So far as can be determined 
from the data here given Mexico paid a minimum of about two- 
fifths of the total revenue from the Indies. 

1560 — 268,702 pesos 1565 — 424,409 pesos 

1561—252,937 " 1566—480,597 " 

1562—284,457 " 1567—517,394 " 

1563—315,218 " 1568—931,463 " 

1564—333,209 " 1569—338,737 " 

(Relacion de la Plata Reales Oro I oias que se a lleuado a 
su magestad desta nueua espana a los Reinos de Castilla desde 
el ano de mil y quinientos y veinte dos , . . hasta el ano 

387 



388 The Spanish Settlements 

presente de mil y quinietos y nouenta y nueue. Brit. Mus. 
Add. MSS., 13,964, fol. 196.) 

Gold and Silver Imported into Spain. — Alava, writing 
from Lyons, July 22, 1564, reports that the banks " tienen 
abisso que han llegado a seuilla seis nabios y esperan otros 
quatro que la Voz es que traen para registrar de V. Md. y 
particulares Vn milHon y docientos mil escudos y callado dos 
milliones mas" (MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1502 (10), fol. 
2b). Fourquevaux writes to the King, Sept. 17, 1566, that 
the fleet from the Indies, consisting of thirty-seven ships, has 
probably arrived at San Lucar ' ' et porte quatre millions 
XLVII mil escuz d'or" {Dephhes, p. 126), which is confirmed 
by a letter of Saint Sulpice to the King of October 17th of the 
same year, in which he says: " La flotte des Indes arrivee a 
Seville porte quatre millions et demy d'or ou d'argent sans le 
secret, et porte une grande richesse de perles, pierreries et 
drogues pour taingdre en cramoisy, et autres choses" {Depeches, 
p. 133). Writing Aug. 2, 1567, to the King, Fourquevaux 
says that Menendez brings the report of the Governor of Cuba 
that the fleet from New Spain carries two millions of gold 
{D^piches, p. 242). June 25, 1568, Fourquevaux again writes 
the King that " la flotte du Peru est arrivee a Seville; et ne s'y 
parleplus de peste, puisqu'ilz ont ce qu'ilz attendoient: ce 
sont trois millions et demy d'or, desquelz I'un million est por 
le Roy Catholique. On parle de trois esmeraudes de grande 
valleur que lad. flotte a portee, dont I'une est si grande et belle 
pezant XXVI caratz, qu'on ne luy scait mectre pris. Autre 
flotte attendant de laNeufve Espagne par tout juillet; laquelle 
porte pour deux millions et demy d'or en argent et peu d'or " 
{Depeches, p. 365). This gives a total of 15,247,000 ducats for 
the four years specified imported for the King and private in- 
dividuals, two millions of which were smuggled. 

Excluding the smuggled gold we have an average for the 
four years of about 3,312,000 ducats a year; and if we take 
this as an average of the entire amount annually imported, 
exclusive of the smuggled gold, which necessarily cannot be 
estimated, we have the enormous importation for the ten years 
of thirty-three millions of ducats. How fallacious all such 



Appendix B 389 

estimates as the above are liable to be is best realised by com- 
paring the two statements quoted in the text, and written 
within a very few years of each other and of the period of 
which they treat. Moncada, covering the earlier years, and 
therefore those of less development of the mines, gives for 
about the same extent of time five hundred millions more 
revenue than Navarette! 

APPENDIX B 

THE "riviere DE MAI " 

Ribaut, in "The true and last discoverie, " chap. 3 (re- 
printed in the Hist. Col. of Louisiana and Florida, by B. F. 
French, 2nd series, " Historical Memoirs and Narratives," p. 
179), places the "Riviere de Mai" in 30 degrees, and this 
may very well have been the river referred to by Chantone in 
his correspondence, and in the instructions of Manrique de 
Rojas under its Spanish name of " Ribera de las Corrientes " 
in 30 degrees. (Chantone to Philip II., Jan. 24, 1563, MS. 
Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1500 (43), and Relacion e informacion 
de los franceses que han ido a poblar en la costa de la Florida. 
San Cristobal de la Habana, 9 de Julio de 1564, MS. Arch. 
Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 54, caj. i, leg. 15, p. 5.) 

When Manrique visited the locality he found that three ves- 
sels loaded with Christians had been there recently (see p. 46 
in this volume), and it is probable that these were Ribaut's 
fleet of two ships and a large sloop, for the two smaller boats 
intended for the shallow Florida waters were carried aboard 
the large vessel while at sea {Relacion e informacion, MS., pp. 
10, 18, 19). Hawkins, who visited Laudonniere's settlement 
on the River of May in 1564, found the river " standing in 30 
degrees and better." (" The voyage made by M. John Haw- 
kins Esquire ... to the coast of Guinea, and the Indies 
of Noua Hispania, begun in An. Dom. 1564," Hakluyt, Edin- 
burgh, 1889, vol. iv., p. 240.) 

Rojomonte, one of the Frenchmen who escaped from 
Laudonniere's colony, and was captured by the Spaniards, 



39° The Spanish Settlements 

mentions the river in his deposition as : "La ribera de mayo que 
esta segun dizen en treynta y un grados de altura. " (Noticia 
de la poblacion que habian hecho los Franceses a la Florida, 
1564. MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, 
caj. I, leg. 1/19, ramo 4, p. i.) Meleneche, another French- 
man, who also escaped from Fort Caroline and was captured 
by the Spaniards, says in his deposition that Laudonniere's 
fleet " baxaron a veinte y nueve y medio, donde hallaron un 
rio que tiene de ancho por la boca un tiro de verso," and he 
describes the river as " entrando por la tierra al Sudueste, 
poco mas o menos, " a description which can only apply to the 
St. John's. (" Relacion del suceso de la Armada Francesa 
que fue a poblar la tierra de la Florida " in " Carta escrita al 
Rey por Juan Rodriguez de Noriega, Sevilla, a 29 de Marzo 
de 1565." MS. Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. JVavarrete^ 
tomo 14, Doc. No. 2)Zj fols. 3b and 5b.) 

Menendez, in his " Carta al Rey, 15 de Octubre de 1565 " 
(Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 92), says: " El rio que esta 
en el fuerte de Sant Mateo, que tomamos a los franceses [/. e., 
Fort Caroline], va sesenta leguas por la tierra dentro, y no se 
llego al cabo del la buelta del Sudueste, a salir casi a la baia de 
Juan Ponce"; and in the same letter, p. 93, he says: "El 
[puerto] del fuerte de Sant Mateo que ganamos esta en treynta 
y un quarto; porque los franceses y sus pilotos se enganavan, 
€ yo he hecho toniar el sol en tierra y averiguarlo." This and 
the similar description given by Meleneche appear to estab- 
lish the identity of the "Riviere de Mai " with the St. John's 
beyond a doubt. 

Other Identifications. — Jean de Laet, in his Histoire du 
Nouveau Monde, Leyde, 1640, liv. iv., chap, xvii., p. 129, 
identifies it with the River of St. Augustine. 

The Altamaha: Guillaume De I'lsle, in his " Carte et Cours 
du Mississipi . . ." Paris . . . 17 18, identifies it 
with the " Riviere des Cavuitas, " the Altamaha, as does also 
lo. Bapt. Homann in his map: "Amplissima regionis Missis- 
sipi seu Provinciae Ludovicianae ... " (1763). 

Mr. George F. Becker, in a carefully prepared note to his 
•' Reconnaissance of the Gold Fields of the Southern Appa- 



Appendix B 391 

lachians," p. 8 (Extract from the Sixteenth Annual Report^ U. 
S. Geological Survey, 1894-95, Part II.), argues that the 
"Riviere de Mai" is the Altamaha, because " Lemoyne's 
map shows it as the largest river of the South, its main branch 
extending to the north-west into the Montes Apalatci, and 
placed much farther north than one would expect to find the 
St. John's. Laudonniere also speaks of the Mai as one of the 
three great rivers rising in the Appalachian Mountains and as 
being navigable for small boats from the mountains to the 
sea." Mr, Becker cites the De I'lsle map above referred to 
in which the mouth of the " Caouitas or May ... is 
shown at a distance north of St. Augustine almost exactly 
corresponding to the real position of the Altamaha"; he also 
cites "A new and accurate map of the province of Georgia in 
North America " of 1760 (?) (No. 92, Col. of American Maps 
made in England, Lib. U. S. Geological Survey), in which the 
river is labelled, " Formerly river of May, now Altamaha or 
St. George's River." 

Mr. Becker's error lies in placing too great confidence in Le 
Moyne's map, which can be accurate only in respect to the 
country which the French actually explored, the balance being 
put in from Indian reports imperfectly understood, if not 
copied from other and equally unreliable sources. The French 
at no time went farther up the river than Lake George. They 
ascended no northerly arm to the mountains, and Laudonniere 
may well have thought that in a vague Indian account of the 
Altamaha he recognised a description of a northerly branch of 
the River of May. The later maps have no force, because 
they merely copied the error made by Mercator in his map of 
1606 (see Appendix J, Maps of the French Colonies in Florida 
and South Carolina), and naturally identified his River of May 
with the Altamaha, when the course of the latter became 
known. Moreover, it has already been shown that Menen- 
dez and Meleneche both state that the River of May flowed 
southwest. 

The first map subsequent to that of Le Moyne to show the 
St. John's flowing southward is "A Map of the West Indies or 
the Islands of America in the South Sea; with ye adjacent 



392 The Spanish Settlements 

Countries," etc., by Herman Moll, Geographer, London, for 
Thos. Bowles and John Bowles. It is dated 1710 by the 
British Museum and 17 15 (?) by P. Lee Phillips in his A List 
of Maps of America, Washington, 1901. But see Brinton, 
Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, p. 85. 

Identified with the St. Mary's. — N. Bellin, in "Carte 
des costes de la Floride Franc:aise, " in Charlevoix, Hist, de 
la Nouvelle France, Paris, 1744, tome i., between pp. 24, 25. 
Frangois-Xavier Martin, in his Hist, of Louisiana (ist edit., 
1827), New Orleans, 1882, chap, i, p. 39. John W. Monette, 
in his Hist, of the Valley of the Mississippi (New York, 1846), 
vol. i., p. 67 and p. 69, note. J. G. Kohl, "A History of the 
Discovery of the East Coast of North America," Portland, 
1869, vol. i., pp. 425, 436 {Col. Maine Hist. Soc, 2nd series). 

The general consensus of modern opinion, however, identi- 
fies the " Riviere de Mai" with the St. John's. Descripcion 
Historica . . . de la Florida, MS. Anonymous, undated 
(end of 1 8th century?), fol. 24b, note. In the possession of 
the writer. Holmes's Annals, London, 1813, vol. i., p. 79, 
note 3, and p. 80, note i. Memoir of Florida, by William 
Darby, Philadelphia, 1821, p. 47. Historical Collections of 
South Carolina, by B. R. Carroll, New York, 1836, vol. i., 
pp. xxxiii. and xxxiv. The Territory of Florida, by John 
Lee Williams, New York, 1837, p. 170. History of Georgia, 
by William B. Stevens, New York, 1847, vol. i., pp. 32, 2,2^1 
37. History of the United States, by George Bancroft (15th 
edit.), Boston, 1855, vol. i., p. 61. " Map of Florida, 1565," 
in the History of St. Augustine, by George R. Fairbanks, New 
York, 1858, between pp. 14, 15, and text on p. 16. This map 
is reproduced by John Gilmary Shea in "Ancient Florida," in 
Narr. and Crit. Hist. Ain., New York, 1886, vol. ii., p. 264. 
Histofj of Florida, by George R. Fairbanks, Philadelphia, 
1 87 1, p. 93. Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, 
by B. F. French, 2nd series. " Historical Memoirs and Nar- 
ratives," New York, 1875, p. 170, note. "Carte de la Floride 
Fran9aise (1562, 1568)," in Histoire de la Floride Fran^aise, 
par Paul Gaffarel, Paris, 1875. History of Hernando de Soto 
and Florida, by Barnard Shipp, Philadelphia, 1881, p. 499, 



Appendix C 395 

note. The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, by John Gilmary 
Shea, New York, 1886, p. 134. The Pioneers of France in the 
New World, by Francis Parkman, Boston, 1893, p. 38, and in 
the map "Florida 1565," between pp. 96, 97. Memoirs of 
Florida, by Roland H. Rerick, edited by Francis P. Fleming, 
Atlanta, Ga., 1902, p. 39, note. 

Laudonniere, in 1564, on the second French expedition, 
established Fort Caroline on the "Riviere de Mai " (see p. 57 
in this volume). From this he was driven out by Menendez 
de Aviles, who changed the name of the fort to that of San 
Mateo, which name was in consequence given to the river; 
and the Spanish settlement of San Mateo, which grew up on 
the right bank of the river, near its mouth, has retained its 
name down through the first quarter of the nineteenth century. 
See the following maps: " East Florida, from Surveys made 
since the last Peace, adapted to Dr. Stork's History of that 
Country," by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King, in 
A Description of Florida, by William Stork, 3rd edit., London, 
1769. "A New Map of the British Colonies in North Amer- 
ica," by John Andrews, London, 1777. " The West Indies, " 
Jno. Cary, London, 1783. " The West Indies," G. G. and J. 
Robinson, London, 1799. " Map of Florida," published by 
Wm. Darby, 1821, \nh\% Memoir of the Geography and Natural 
and Civil History of Florida, Philadelphia, 1821. Bernard 
Romans tells us that the Indians called the St. John's River 
the Ylacco, a name which conveys an indecent meaning, which 
he nowhere explains. A concise Natural History of East and 
West Florida, New York, 1775, "^o^- i-? PP- i' 259-273. Daniel 
G. Brinton, in his Floridian Peninsula, p. 154, note i, gives a 
list of the various names of the St. John's River, both English, 
Spanish, and native. 

APPENDIX C 

THE PILLAR SET UP BY RIBAUT 

Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 8; Hak., vol. ii., p. 417. Chan- 
tone to Philip II., Jan. 24, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 
1500 (43)- 



394 The Spanish Settlements 

The Frenchman Rufin, left at Port Royal by the small force 
Ribaut had settled at Charlesfort, thus describes the pillar: 
" El qual dicho mojon es de piedra blanca e de alto y grueso 
como un hombre poco mas 6 roenos y en lo alto del esta de- 
buxado un escudo con una corona enfima y dentro del tres 
flores de lis e mas abajo una IR . . . e mas abajo quatro 
numeros de guarismo que dizen 156 1." Relacion e informa- 
cion de los franceses que han ido a poblar en la costa de la 
Florida, 1564, MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 54, caj, 
I, leg. 15, p. 27. Le Moyne, in Plate VIII. of his " Indorum 
Floridam provinciam inhabitantium eicones, " forming part of 
the De Bry Brevis Narratio, Frankforti ad Moenum, 1591, 
shows a column in substantial accordance with the above 
description, /. e., a crown with the coat of arms, and below 
them an oval, which probably contained the cypher, which he 
does not give. Neither does he give the inscribed name and 
date. The pillars were brought out from France ready to set 
up. Relacion e mformacidn de los franceses, etc., p. 21. 

APPENDIX D 

THE RIVERS BETWEEN THE "rIVIERE DE MAl" AND PORT ROYAL 

There are three independent sources from which we learn 
the names of the rivers visited or seen by Ribaut in his first 
expedition along the Florida coast. The first is Ribaut's The 
true and last discoverie of Florida, published in 1563; the 
second is Laudonniere, in his Histoire Notable, published in 
1586, and the third is Le Moyne's map in De Bry's Brevis 
Nar ratio, published in 1591. From two of these accounts we 
also learn the order in which the rivers were discovered. 
Laudonniere accompanied Ribaut on this first expedition, of 
which he gives a detailed account. Ribaut, in addition to his 
relation, made "maps or sea-cards," which appear to have 
formed part of it. (" The true and last discoverie of Florida," 
reprint in Hist. Col. Louisiana and Florida, by B. F. French, 
2nd series, " Historical Memoirs and Narratives," p. 183.) 
Le Moyne accompanied Laudonniere on the second expedition 



Appendix D 



395 



and subsequently prepared the only contemporary map which 
we now have of the country colonised by the French. All 
three authorities agree in the names of several of the rivers, 
and two of them in the order in which they were visited; but 
disagree as to the number of them between the " Riviere de 
Mai" and Port Royal. Thus there are in all fifteen different 
names of rivers, of which Le Moyne gives fourteen, Laudon- 
niere twelve, and Ribaut ten. Ribaut omits two rivers given by 
Laudonniere, and places another north of Port Royal which 
Laudonniere has placed to the south of it. Ribaut also omits 
five of Le Moyne's rivers. Laudonniere omits three of Le 
Moyne's rivers, but substitutes another of a different name in 
place of the one last omitted. 

The following table best illustrates the superficial agreement, 
but real confusion, that exists in the list of names given by the 
three authorities mentioned: 





Le Moyne ' 


Laudonniere 




Ribaut 


I. 


Maij 

Sarvauahi 

Aij 

Sequana 

Axona Iracana 

Ligeris 

Charenta 

Garumna 

Gironda 

Bellum 

Magnum 

S. Helenae 


I. 

2. 

3- 
4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

10. 
II. 

12. 


May 


I. 

2. 

3- 
4- 

5- 
6. 

7. 
8. 

9- 
10. 


May 


3- 

4. 

5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

lO. 

II. 

12. 






Seine 

Somme 

Loire 

Charente 

Garonne 

Gironde 

Belle 

Grande 


Seine 

Somme 

Loire 

Charnet 

Caro 


Belle 
Grande 


Belle a veoir 
Port Royale 




13- 


Portus Regalis 


Port Royale 
Belle voir 


14. 


Humilde 


Basse 



* In the list of these rivers given by Le Moyne in Plates III., IV., and 
V. of his Eicones he omits 2 and 3 ; 11 is called " Grandis," 12 "The 
River Jordan," after which comes the " Conspectu bellum," and then 
*' Port Royal." 



39^ The Spanish Settlements 

Questions of the following nature at once suggest them- 
selves: Is the " Seine " of Laudonniere and Ribaut the same 
river as the " Sequana " of Le Moyne, or was the name given 
by them to one or the other of Le Moyne's second and third 
rivers? If the latter be the case the relation of the other rivers 
is altered. Was Ribaut right as to the location of the " Belle 
voir," or was Laudonniere? Is " S. Helense " Le Moyne's 
name for Laudonniere's " Belle a veoir "? And if so, must it 
be accepted as against Ribaut, although Ribaut' s account was 
written within a few months of his return and the others 
twenty-four and twenty-nine years after? Why did Ribaut, 
commander and map-maker of the expedition, omit the 
"Gironde"? Until these and similar questions can be an- 
swered it seems futile to attempt any identification of these 
names with rivers known to us to-day in that region. Charle- 
voix says of these various names: "On reconnut dans la suite 
qu'il avoit pris plusieurs anses pour des embouchures de 
Rivieres" {Hist, de la Nouvelle France^ Paris, 1744, p. 25), 
And Barcia also makes the same statement {Ensayo CronologtcOy 
Ano MDLXIL, p. 44). 

The attempt at identification has been made by various his- 
torians and map-makers, as follows: 

The Seine corresponds, perhaps, to the St. Mary's. Holmes's 
Annals, London, 1813, vol. i., p. 80, note i; Hist. Col. South 
Carolina, by B. R. Carroll, New York, 1836, vol. i., p. 567; 
Hist, of Georgia, by William B. Stevens, New York, 1847, 
vol. i., p. 33; Hist. Col. of Louisiana and Florida, by B. F. 
French, New York, 1875, 2nd series, " Historical Memoirs and 
Narratives," p. 184, note; Hist, of Hernando de Soto and 
Florida, by Barnard Shipp, Philadelphia, 1881, p. 499, note; 
Pioneers of France in the JVew World, by Francis Parkman, 
Boston, 1893, p. 39. 

The Seine is identified with the river named by the Indians 
Tacatacuru in: Gourgues, 1567, Reprise de la Floride, Lar- 
roque, Bordeaux, 1867, p. 47; Guillaume De I'lsle, "Carte et 
Cours du Mississipi . . ." Paris . . . 1718; lo. Rapt. 
Homann, " Amplissima regionis Mississipi seu Provincise 
Ludovicianae . . ."(1763). Shipp, Z*^ 6'^/'«?, 1881, p. 571, 



Appendix D 397 

and John Gilmary Shea, in his "Ancient Florida," xw Narr. 
and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii. (1886), p. 280, identify the Taca- 
tacuru with the St. Mary's. 

To the Altamaha: N. Bellin, " Carte des costes de la 
Floride Franpaise, " 1744, in Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle 
France., i744, tome i., between pp. 24, 25; Tamizey de Lar- 
roque, La Reprise de la Floride., Bordeaux, 1867, p. 47, note; 
"Carte de la Floride Frangaise (1562, 1568)," in Gaffarel, 
Hist, de la Floride Franfaise, Paris, 1875. 

The Somme corresponds, perhaps, to the Satilla: Holmes's 
Annals, vol. i., p. 80, note i; Carroll, ibid., p. xxxiv., note; 
Stevens, ibid., vol. i., p. 2>Z\ French, ibid., p. 182, "and 
Jykill or St. Andrew's Sound "; Gaffarel's map, ibid.; Shipp, 
ibid., p. 499, note. 

To the St. Mary's: Hist, of St. Augustine, by George R. 
Fairbanks, New York, 1858, p. 103. 

The Somme is identified with the river named by the Indians 
the Alimacany: Gourgues, 1567, Reprise de la Floride, Lar- 
roque, Bordeaux, 1867, p. 48; Shipp, F)e Soto, 1881, p. 571, 
note; Laudonniere, on the other hand, says the Somme was 
the river "which the Sauages call Iracana" ("A Notable 
History," in Hakluyt, Edinburgh, 1889, vol. ii., p. 502, and 
Basanier, p. 93), and Larroque identifies "L' Iracana des 
Espagnoles " with the Alimacany {^Reprise de la Floride, p. 48, 
note). From this it appears to have had two Indian names, 
for Larroque' s " des Espagnoles " is merely a slip of the pen, 
Gatschet " The Timucua Language," in Proceedings of the 
American Philosophical Society, vol. xviii., p. 500, says the 
Iracana, " also called Salinacana, " was probably in Georgia. 

The Loire corresponds, perhaps, to the Savannah: Holmes's 
A7inals, vol. i., p. 80, note i. 

To the Altamaha: Carroll, ibid., p. 567; Stevens, ibid., vol. 
i., p. 33; French, ibid., p. 184, note; Shipp, ibid., p. 499, note. 

To the Sapello: Gaffarel's map, ibid., 1875. 

The Charente corresponds, perhaps, to the Newport: 
Holmes's ^^z/z^/i', vol. i., p. 80; Carroll, ibid., p. xxxiv., note; 
Stevens, ibid., vol. i., p. -i^y, French, ibid., p 184, note; 
Shipp, ibid., p. 499, note. 



39^ The Spanish Settlements 

To the Ogeechee: N. Bellin's map, ibid., 1744; Gaffarel's 
map, ibid., i875- 

The Garonne corresponds, perhaps, to the Ogeechee: 
Holmes's Annals, vol. i., p. 80, note i; Carroll, ibid., p. 
xxxiv., note; French, ibid., p. 184, note; Shipp, ibid., p. 499, 
note. 

To the Savannah: Gaffarel's map, 1875, 

To St. Catherine's Inlet: Stevens, ibid., vol. i., p. n. 

The Gironde corresponds, perhaps, to the Savannah: 
Holmes's Annals, vol. i., p. 80, note i; Carroll, ibid., p. 
xxxiv., note; French, ibid., p. 184, note; Shipp, ibid., p. 499, 
note. 

To the Ogeechee: Stevens, ibid., vol. i., p. 2,2^. 

To the Santa Helena (?): Gaffarel's map, ibid., 1875. 

To the "Riviere des Chaouanes " or Edisto: Guillaume 
De I'lsle's map, ibid., 1718; lo. Bapt. Homann's map, ibid., 
1763. 

The Belle corresponds, perhaps, to the May in South Caro- 
lina: Holmes's Annals, vol. i., p. 80, note i; Carroll, ibid., p. 
xxxiv., note; French, ibid., p. 184, note. 

To the South Edisto (?): Gaffarel's map, ibid., 1875. 

Laudonniere, in 1564, looking from the top of a bluff near 
the mouth of the " Riviere de Mai " (the St. John's), says: 
"And more than sixe leagues off, neere the Riuer Belle, a man 
may behold the medowes diuided asunder into lies and Islets 
enterlacing one another " ("A Notable Historie, " in Hakluyt, 
vol. ii., p. 450, Basanier, p. 41). The position of the Belle in 
the other relations and in Le Moyne's map is quite irreconcil- 
able with this statement. 

The Grande corresponds perhaps, to the Broad River: 
Holmes's Annals vol. i. p. 80, note i; Carroll, ibid., p. xxxiv., 
note; Johnson, quoted by Carroll, ibid., p. xxxvii., note; 
French, ibid., p. 184, note; Shipp, ibid., p. 499 note. Le 
Moyne places the S. Helenae, and Laudonniere the Belle a 
veoir, between the Grande and Port Royal, which is quite in- 
consistent with the theory that the Grande is the Broad River. 
Only in Ribaut, The true and last discoverie, is the Grande 
immediately followed by Port Royal. 



Appendix E 399 

To the Edisto: Franfois-Xavier Martin, ibid., 1882, chap, 
i., p. 39. 

To the Savannah: Stevens, ibid., vol. i., p. 2)Z- 

The Belle a veoir is probably the May in South Carolina: 
Shipp, ibid., p. 499, note. 

The Basse is probably the Edisto of the English: Holmes's 
Annals, vol. i., p. 411. 

The Libourne is identified with Skull Creek: Parkman, ibid.^ 

P- 39- 

APPENDIX E 

PORT ROYAL 

Description of Port Royal. — Its entrance is three French 
leagues wide {Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 11, 12; Hak., vol. 
ii., p. 421. Le Moyne's " Eicones " in De Bry's Brevis Nar- 
ratio, Plate V.). It is divided into two arms (Basanier, Le 
Moyne, Plate V.). The Relacion e informacion de los fran- 
ceses que han ido a poblar en la costa de la Florida, San 
Cristobal de la Habana, 9 de Julio de 1564 (MS. Arch. Gen. de 
Indias, Seville, est. 54, caj. i., leg. 15, p. 16), describes it as 
having " dos bocas de puertos que estan juntos una con otra, " 
and as the fifth harbour visited by Manrique de Rojas after 
leaving the " Rio de Sancta Elena " in 32 degrees and sailing 
north, and again as " un puerto grande de dos," {ibid., p. 26). 
One arm extends to the north (Basanier, Le Moyne), nearly 
ten or twelve leagues up into the country (" The true and last 
discoverie of Florida by Captain John Ribaut, " reprint in 
Hist. Col. Louisiana and Florida, by B. F. French, 2nd series, 
"Historical Memoirs and Narratives," 1527-1702, p. 185). 
The other branch extends west for twelve leagues and runs into 
the sea. The two arms are two leagues wide, with an island in 
the centre having its point towards the great river's mouth 
{Hist. Notable, Basanier, pp. 12, 13; Hak., vol. ii., pp. 421, 
422; Le Moyne, ibid., Plate V., and map). 

There is a discrepancy between the statements of Laudon- 



400 The Spanish Settlements 

niere and Ribaut in respect to the distance sailed up these 
arms. Laudonniere says that Ribaut sailed twelve leagues up 
the western arm, and then returned to his ships, and the next 
day sailed three leagues west and discovered the island where 
the pillar was set up {Ilak., vol. ii., pp. 422, 423). Ribaut, 
as above noted, says he went up the northern arm ten or twelve 
leagues. 

The western arm has an affluent from the east {Hist. 
Notable, Basanier, pp. 12, 13; Hak., vol. ii., p. 422; Le 
Moyne, map), which Le Moyne shows as uniting the western 
and eastern branches. 

Le Moyne appears to have derived all of the data for the 
legend of Plate V. from the Histoire Notable, of which it is 
almost a translation, and Port Royal, as shown on his map, is 
in agreement with this description, and Le Moyne is therefore 
of no value in determining whether Ribaut or Laudonniere 
is correct in this particular. 

The fort built by Ribaut was situated " sobre un brago de 
un rrio que esta en un puerto grande de dos que estan junto 
a la banda del sur " of the harbour in 32° 20', where Manrique 
de Rojas anchored, from which it was but three leagues distant 
" por el rrio arriba sin salir a la mar," where it was found 
{Relacidn e itiforinacion de los fraticeses, pp. 17, 21, 26, 27). 

Its Location. — Port Royal is in 32 degrees (Chantone to 
Philip II., Jan. 24, 1563, MS. Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1500 [43]; 
Instructions to Manrique, Relacidn e informacion de los fran- 
ceses, p. 5, and the French observations in Rufin's deposition, 
ibid., p. 21). But it was not found there by Manrique, who 
visited a harbour in 32 degrees {ibid., pp. 10, 11). It is in 32 
degrees and 15 minutes (Observations of Ribaut's Spanish 
pilot in Rufin's deposition, ibid., p. 21). Manrique finds it a 
little south of a port in 32 degrees and 20 minutes {ibid., pp. 
26, 27). 

The Coast to the South of Port Royal. — One league 

to the south of Port Royal, that is to say, of the harbour 

where Manrique found the pillar, are {a) "dos puertos . . . 

junto de uno." One league from {a) is {b) " otro puerto 

que tiene dos rrios. " Two leagues from {b) is {c) 



Appendix E 401 

" otro puerto." — ' leagues from {c) is (d) " otro puerto." 
Three or four leagues from (d) is Manrique's Santa Elena in 
32 degrees. i^Relacion e informacidn de los franceses, passim.) 

The Coast to the North of Port Royal. — Two or three 
leagues to the north of Port Royal, that is to say, of the har- 
bour where Manrique found the pillar, is a harbour in 32° 20', 
which has "un rrio que esta sobre la vanda del norueste" {ibid.). 

Conclusion. — The latitude of Port Royal Sound is 32° 15', 
which corresponds accurately to that observed by Ribaut's 
Spanish or Portuguese pilot, i. <?., 32|-°, as reported by Rufin. 
The latitude of Fripp's Inlet to the north-east is 32° 20', 
which corresponds accurately with that observed by Man- 
rique, /. e., " treinta y dos y un tercio." Fripp's Inlet has a 
small creek, unnamed in the Coast Survey Chart, near its 
mouth on the south side, also a stream on the north-west 
bank, not far from its mouth, and Port Royal Sound can be 
reached by going up Story River in a small boat, without going 
to sea; all of which agrees very closely with Manrique's de- 
scription of his harbour. It is also to be noted that Port 
Royal, /. e.., where the pillar was found, was unquestionably 
beyond the harbour in 32 degrees where Manrique first 
entered. Too much stress must not be laid upon the coinci- 
dence of the latitudes, as observed by Manrique, with those 
determined by the Coast Survey, as, in view of the imperfect 
means by which the observations were made at that time, it 
may be entirely fortuitous. The correspondence of the har- 
bours to the south of Port Royal, /. e., Tybee Roads, Wassaw 
Sound, Ossaba Sound, and so on, to the harbours visited by 
Manrique prior to reaching Port Royal, where he found the 
pillar, is only a very general one and is, perhaps, rather forced. 

In direct conflict with this identification of Ribaut's Port 
Royal with the present harbour of the same name is the state- 
ment made by Men^ndez in his letter to Phihp II. of October 
15, 1565, before he had visited the locality. Writing from St. 
Augustine, Florida, he says: " Y para el Maio convendra que 
yr d poblar a Santa Elena, que esta cinquenta leguas 
de aqui, y en tres leguas tiene tres puertos y rios, y el mayor 
' The distance is not given in the manuscript. 



402 The Spanish Settlements 

tiene seys brazas de agua y el otro quatro puertos admirables; 
y el que nos Uamamos Santa Elena, que es el tercero donde 
los franceses estaban, es muy ruin, y todos tres se navegan por 
dentro del uno al otro " (Ruidiaz, La Florida^ tomo ii., p. 94). 
This seems to indicate Santa Helena Sound as that of the 
French settlement. 

Port Royal has been identified with the Edisto {i. e., the 
South Edisto) by J. Oldmixton, " History of Carolina " (Lon- 
don, 1708, cap, i., reprinted in Hi'sf. Col. South Carolina by 
B. R. Carroll, vol. ii., p. 394), where he calls it " The Albe- 
marle River." Charlevoix, Hist, de la Nouvelle France^ Paris, 
1744, tome i., livre i., p. 25. N. Bellin, "Carte des costes de 
la Floride Frangoise . . ."in Charlevoix, ibid., between 
pp. 24, 25. Dr. Hewit, " History of the Rise and Progress 
of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia" (London, 
1779, cap. i. reprinted in Hist. Col. South Carolina and Georgia 
by B. R. Carroll, vol. i., p. 23), calls it the "Albemarle 
River." Geo. Chalmers "Political Annals of the United 
Colonies, Carolina" (printed in London, 1780, reprinted in 
Hist. Col. South Carolina by B. R. Carroll, vol. ii., p. 275), 
makes it the Edisto. John W. Monette {Hist, of the Valley 
of the Mississippi River, New York, 1846, vol. i., p. 67) says 
it was " above the St. Helena Sound, south of the Combahee 
River." Dr. Belknap identifies it with the St. John's (cited 
by B. R. Carroll in Hist. Col. South Carolina, vol. i., p. 
XXX vi., note). 

Modern writers are generally agreed to place it at Port 
Royal Sound, South Carolina. Brigstock, who travelled 
through that region in 1653 (and not in 1623, as erroneously 
stated by French in his note to Ribaut's " The true and last 
discoverie, " in Hist. Col. Louisiana and Florida, 2nd series, 
" Historical Memoirs and Narratives," p. 184), is cited to this 
effect by French {ibid.). Holmes's Annals, London, 1813, vol. 
i., p. 80, note I. Dr. Holmes, according to Carroll {Hist. Col. 
S. C, vol. i., p. xxxvi,), addressed several interrogations to 
his friends in Beaufort, South Carolina, on the subject of the 
situation of Charlesfort. Memoir of Florida, by William 
Darby, Philadelphia, 1821, pp. 47, 48. History of Louisianay 



Appendix F 403 

by Fran9ois-Xavier Martin (first edition, 1827), New Orleans, 
1882, p. 39. Historical Collection of South Carolina^ by B. R. 
Carroll, New York, 1836, vol. i., pp. xxxiv., xxxvi. Mr. 
Carroll personally conducted investigations to determine the 
site of Charlesfort, and a search was made to find the pillar 
erected by Ribaut, which we now know had been removed by 
the Spaniards. On page xxxvii. he relates a tradition of the 
South Carolina Indians in West Georgia, where they had been 
compelled to retire by the influx of the whites, that " the first 
place at which they ever saw the whites, was at Coosawhatchie, 
in South Carolina," which is the principal stream that flows 
into the Broad River, " and was no doubt among the first that 
were explored by Ribault's men." 

Bancroft, in his History of the United States (15th edit., Bos- 
ton, 1855, vol. i., cap. 2, p. 61), referring to Laudonniere's 
account, says: "The description is sufficiently minute and 
accurate; removing all doubt " as to its not being Port Royal 
Sound, South Carolina. History of St. Augustine, by George 
R. Fairbanks, New York, 1858, p. 15. J. G. Kohl, "A His- 
tory of the Discovery of the East Coast of North America," 
Portland, 1869, vol. i., p. 427 (d?/. Maine Hist. Soc, 2nd 
series). History of Florida., by George R. Fairbanks, Philadel- 
phia, 1 87 1, p. 94. Historical Collection of Louisiana and 
Florida., by B. F. French, 2nd series, " Historical Memoirs and 
Narratives," New York, 1875, P- ^^4> i^ote. History of Her- 
nando de Soto and Florida, by Barnard Shipp, Philadelphia, 
1 88 1, p. 499, note. The Catholic Church in Colonial Days, by 
John Gilmary Shea, New York, 1886, p. 134, and in his 
"Ancient Florida," in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., New York, 
1886, vol. ii., p. 260, where it is identified with Villafane's 
Santa Elena. Pioneers of France in the New World, by 
Francis Parkman, Boston, 1893, p. 39. 

APPENDIX F 

CHARLESFORT 

Ribaut, in '* The true and last discoverie " (reprint in Hist. 
Col. Louisiana and Florida., by B. F. French, 2nd series, " Hist. 



404 The Spanish Settlements 

Memoirs and Narratives," p. i88), says Charlesfort was situ- 
ated " on the north side of an island . . . upon a river, 
which we called Chenonceau." Laudonniere writes, " ayant 
navigue dans la grande riviere du cost^ du septentrion [that is, 
having ascended the northerly arm of the Port Royal], en 
costoyant une isle qui finit en pointe vers I'embouchure de la 
riviere . . . il decouvrit une petite riviere, qui entroit 
pars le dedans de I'isle, " on which the fort was built {Hist. 
Notable, Basanier, p. 19; Hak., vol. ii., p. 429). Le Moyne 
{Eicones, Plate VII.) says: " qui in Charles-fort propugnaculo 
supra fluviolum insulam, quae in majore Portus Regalis alveo 
Septentrionem spectante sita est." The Frenchman Rufin 
deposes that it could be reached from a harbour in 32° 20', 
*' por el rrio arriba sin salir a la mar " (see p. 400, anteain this 
volume), and Manrique reported " que es sobre un brago de 
un rrio que esta en un puerto grande de dos que estan junto a 
la vanda del sur del susodicho [harbour in 32° 20'] hasta tres 
leguas, " where he afterwards found it. This description is 
too indefinite to permit of determining its location. Never- 
theless the following attempts have been made: 

On or near Beaufort Island, Port Royal: Carroll, Hist. Col. 
South Carolina, 1836, vol. i., p. xxxvi. ; Stevens, Hist, of 
Georgia, 1847, vol. i., p. 34. J. G. Kohl, "A History of the 
Discovery of the East Coast of North America," Portland, 
1869, vol. i., p. 427 {Col. Maine Hist. Soc., 2nd series). 
French, in his note to " The true and last discoverie" (in Hist. 
Col. Louisiana and Florida, 2nd series, " Historical Memoirs 
and Narratives," 1875, p. 188), says on the "island named 
in the old Spanish maps Santa Cruz, and near the present 
beautiful town of Beaufort." Parkman, Pioneers of France 
in the New World, 1893, p. 41. 

On the Edisto: Chalmers, " Political Annals of the Province 
of Carolina," London, 1780, reprint in Carroll's Hist. Col. 
South Carolina, vol. ii., p. 275. 

Beaufort or Edisto : Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Fran^aise, 
1875, p. 22. 

Mouth of the Albemarle River: Oldmixton, " Hist, of 
Georgia," 1708, reprint in Carroll's Z^/V/. Col. South Carolina, 



Appendix G 405 

vol. ii., p. 394. Monette {Hist, of the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi, New York, 1846, vol. i., p. 67) places it "a few miles 
above the St. Helena Sound, south of the Combahee River." 
Both Barcia, in his Ensayo Cronohs;ico, (ano MDLXII., p, 
44), and John Lee Williams, in his Florida (New York, 1837, 
p. 169), confuse the Charlesfort of Ribaut with Fort Caroline, 
built in 1564 by Laudonniere. 

The Chenonceau is identified with Pilot's Creek, which 
empties into the Port Royal, in the note to " The Port Royal 
Discovery," in Hist. Col. South Carolina, vol. v., p. 75. 
Parkman (in The Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 41) 
and French (in Hist. Col. Louisiana and Florida, 2nd series, 
"Hist. Memoirs and Narratives," p. 184, note) identify it 
with Archer's Creek, about six miles from the present town of 
Beaufort, to which French also gives the name of Skull Creek. 

APPENDIX G 

FORT CAROLINE 

Rojomonte, in his deposition {JVoticias de la Poblacidn, etc., 
p. 3), says of the situation of Fort Caroline: " Puede estar de 
la boca del dicho Rio dos leguas y sobre una barranca alta 
sobre un brafo del dicho Rio a la banda del Sudueste. " Me- 
leneche, in his deposition ("Relacion del suceso," etc., in 
Noriega to Philip II., March 29, 1565, fol. 3b, MS.), says: 
** Entrado de la barra adentro hay muchos bancos 
y estos bancos los hay quatro 6 cinco leguas por el rio adentro, 
al fin de los quales han fundado un Pueblo la gente de esta 
Armada," and farther on he repeats: " Fundaron un fuerte de 
madera y faxina, quatro 6 cinco leguas d dentro de la boca 
deste rio, passados los bancos que estan dichos." The writer 
of the "Coppie d'une lettre venant de la Floride " {Fecueil de 
Pihes sur la Floride, p. 241) says: " Lequel fort est sur la dicte 
riuiere de May, enuiron six lieues das la riuiere loign de la 
mer." Velasco, in his Geografia (p. 168), says: " San Mateo 
[the name given by Menendez to Fort Caroline] tiene por senas 
unatierramas alta que todas, que esta una legua por la tierra, 



4o6 The Spanish Settlements 

adonde solia estar el fuerte que los franceses hicieron." 
Laudonniere, in his Histoire Notable (Basanier, p. 44; Hak., 
vol. ii., p. 453), says: " This place is ioyning a mountaine. " 
Menendez, in his letter of September 11, 1565 (Ruidiaz, La 
Florida^ tomo ii., p. 75), says of the French: " Tiene hecha 
su fuerga cinco leguas por el rio adentro "; but this informa- 
tion he had probably derived from the three French mutineers 
he took with him, as he had not yet been to the fort. 

Some confusion exists in the above descriptions, but four of 
the authorities agree in placing the fort on or near a high hill, 
and it was unquestionably situated on a river, probably where 
a small stream flowed into it. It is not at all unlikely that it 
was at the head of the sand-bars in the river; and if Rojo- 
monte indicates the distance by land, he is in substantial 
agreement with Velasco. 

George R. Fairbanks, in his History of St. Augustine (New 
York, 1858, p. 16), places Fort Caroline " about two leagues " 
above the mouth of the St. John's, and between pages 50 and 
51 he gives an interesting map entitled, " Entrance of the St. 
John's River," showing the nature of the neighbouring region, 
which goes far to prove the correctness of his conclusion. In 
chapter vi., pp. 51-59, he gives an excellent discussion on the 
subject of its site, although he was not in command of some 
of the data which we now have. Mr. Fairbanks adheres to 
this location in '\\\% History of Florida (p. 100), and is followed 
by Parkman in his Pioneers of France in the New World (Bos- 
ton, 1893, p. 55, note i), and by John Gilmary Shea in his 
"Ancient Florida" (in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., 
p. 265), who reproduces the above-mentioned Fairbanks map 
with a note that "his view of the site is open to question." 
Charles B. Reynolds, in his Old St. Augustine (St. Augustine, 
Florida, 5th edition), in the map given on p. 21 and elsewhere 
in his book, places the fort in the bight in the river to the 
south of the location given by Fairbanks. Le Page Du Pratz, 
in the English version of his History of Louisiana (London, 
1763, vol. i., p. 3), says the ruins of Fort Caroline "are still 
to be seen above the fort at Pensacola "(!). His translator, 
in a foot-note to the author's remark, places it at St. Angus- 



Appendix H 4^7 

tine. As Dr. Shea has observed, the location at St. John's 
Bluff does not altogether satisfy the requirements; but in the 
course of years the topography of the river may have greatly 
changed, and St. John's Bluff cannot be far out of the way. 

APPENDIX H 

TIMUQUA 

The name is variously written Timoqua, Timuca, Timucua, 
Tymangona, Tymangoua, Thimogona, Thimogoa, Thimagoa, 
Timogona, Timoga, and, by the English, Tomoco and Ali- 
muca. It contains the word attmoqua, signifying " lord, ruler," 
which occurs in Father Pareja's Confessionario En letigua 
Castellana y Ttmuquana, Mexico, 1613, p. 205, and elsewhere 
in his works. Albert S. Gatschet in "The Timucua Language," 
in Proceedi7igs of the American Philosophical Society, Philadel- 
phia, 1877, vol. xvi., p. 627. 

For the region inhabited by the Timuquanans see: Albert 
S. Gatschet, ibid., 1877, vol. xvi., p. 626; ibid., 1878, vol. xvii., 
p. 490; ibid., 1880, vol, xviii., p. 465. The final article in Mr. 
Gatschet's interesting and exhaustive essay contains on page 
475 a bibliography of the titles of Father Pareja's works in the 
Library of the Historical Society of New York consulted by 
him. The Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic for 1877, pp. 245-260, and 
for 1881, pp. 189-200, contains an abridgment in German 
of his essay published in The Proceedings of the Aitierican 
Philosophical Society 2J00VQ mentioned. J. W. Powell, " Indian 
Linguistic Families," Seventh Ann. Rep. Bu. Ethn., 1885-86, 
p. 123. Cyrus Thomas, "The Indians in North America in 
Historic Times," in Lee's Hist, of North America, Philadel- 
phia, vol. ii., p. 58. Bernard Romans, in A concise Natural 
History of East and West Florida (New York, 1775, vol. i., 
pp. 37, 267), gives an account of their last home. 

For the Timuquanan language, in addition to the essay of 
Mr. Gatschet above cited, see: Arte de la Lengua Timuquana, 
compuesto en 1614 por el P^ Francisco Pareja y publicado 
conforme al original linico por Lucien Adam y Julien Vinson, 
Paris, 1886. 



4o8 The Spanish Settlements 

Some idea of the numerous Timuquanan villages can be 
gathered from Laudonniere's relation in the Histoire Notable. 
Menendez, writing of the St. John's River, says: ** En este 
rio ay grandes poblaciones de yndios " (Aviles to Philip II., 
Oct. 15, 1565, Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 92). Le Moyne 
shows " Timoga " on his map on the right bank of the St. 
John's shortly before it turns south, opposite the mouth of the 
mythical northern branch of the river, which may perhaps 
correspond to Trout Creek. 

Timuqua also appears on various maps as follows: Lescarbot 
(Marc), " Figure et description de la terre reconue et habitee 
par les Fran9ois en la Floride et audega, gisante paries 30, 31, 
et 32 degrez," in Lescarbot 's Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 
Paris, 1611, facing p. 596. De Laet (Jean), "Florida et 
Regiones Vicinae, ' ' in Histoire du Nouveau Monde 
par le Sieur lean de Laet ... A Leyde, 1640, p. 102. 
Sanson d' Abbeville, " Le Nouveau Mexique et la Floride," 
Paris, 1656. Du Val (P.), " La Floride Frangoise Dressee sur 
La Relation des Voyages que Ribaut, Laudonier, et Gourgues 
y ont faits en 1562, 1564 et 1567," in. Diver ses Cartes et Tables 
pour la Ge'ographie Ancienne . . . Par O. Du Val . 
Paris, 1665. Sanson d' Abbeville, " Le Nouveau Mexique et 
la Floride," Paris, 1679 (a reprint of the 1656 map). De I'lsle 
(Guillaume), "Carte du Mexique et de la Floride," Paris, 
1703. Senex and Maxwell, "North America," London, 
1710. Chatelain (H. A.), "Carte contenant le Royaume du 
Mexique et de la Floride," in Gueudeville, Atlas Historique 
(1705-1719), tome vi. (1719), No. 27, p. loi. De I'lsle (Guil- 
laume), "Carte du Mexique et de la Floride," etc., Amsterdam, 
1722. Renier & Ottens, " Insul?e Americanae," etc. (1730?). 
Seutter (Matthaeus), " Mapa Geographica Regionam Mexi- 
canam et Floridam," etc. (i 740-1 760). De I'lsle (Guillaume), 
"Carta Geografica della Florida Nell' America Settentrionale " 
(1750), in Atlante Novissimo del Sig' Guglielmo de I'lsle, 
Venezia, 1 740-1 750, vol. ii. (1750). In this last map, as well 
as in all the preceding ones, the location of " Timogoa " fol- 
lows that given it in the Le Moyne map, or varies only slightly 
from it. Martin (Benjamin), "A Map of the British and 



Appendix I 409 

French Settlements in North America" (second part), in his 
Miscellaneous Correspojidence^ I755~i756, London, vol. i., p. 
88, where the name Timooquas is applied to the northern 
section of the Peninsula of Florida. Homann (Joh. Bap- 
tista), " Regni Mexicani seu Nov« Hispaniae," etc. (1763), 
in his Atlas Geographicus Major, tomus i. (published 1763), 
Romans (Bernard), "A General Map of the Southern British 
Colonies in America," by B. Romans, 1776. He shows the 
"Ancient Timookas " in about northern Alabama. Pownall, 
"A New Map of North America with the West India Islands," 
1783, and Albert and Lotter, "A New and Correct Map of 
North America with the West India Islands," 1784, show the 
country of the "Ancient Timookas " in southern Georgia. 

Recent maps are: "The Linguistic Families of the Gulf 
States," by Albert S. Gatschet, in his A Migration Legend of 
the Creek Indians, vol. i. Philadelphia, 1884, between pp. 48, 
49. "Florida, 1565," in Parkman, Pioneers of France in the 
New World, Boston, 1893, between pp. 96, 97. 

APPENDIX I 

LAUDONNlfeRE'S STORY OF THE NOVEMBER MUTINY 

Laudonniere, Le Moyne, and Hawkins, who obtained his 
information from the French, give a much more dramatic ac- 
count of the mutiny than that recorded by the Spaniards. It 
is evidently derived from the mutineers, who returned to Fort 
Caroline, and who, faithful to the traditions of their country, 
make their ill-luck turn upon the cleverness of a woman. 
Their story, which we have only at second and third hand, 
runs as follows: The vessel captured off Cape Tiburon proved 
to have a rich prize on board, for it contained no less a per- 
sonage than the Governor of Jamaica (Le Moyne, Brevis 
Narratio, p. 19, says. Governor of Havana), together with a 
great store of gold and silver, merchandise and wines. Hav- 
ing agreed with the Governor upon a ransom, which, sailor- 
like, was to include some monkeys called sanguines, natives of 
the island, they set sail for Jamaica. Arrived off the island. 



4IO The Spanish Settlements 

the Governor persuaded them to allow his two little boys, 
who had been captured with him, to go ashore and advise 
his wife to send him some provisions. At the same time he 
forwarded secret instructions by the lads as to where his 
captors were and asked that vessels be sent to his rescue. 
The lady proved equal to the occasion, and at daybreak next 
morning the pirates were surprised by the descent upon them 
of three Spanish ships, which chased them for three leagues 
and succeeded in recapturing their own vessel, but allowed the 
brigantine to escape with the larger part of the pirates. (See 
also Hawkins's account in Hak., vol. iv., p. 242.) 

APPENDIX J 

MAPS OF THE FRENCH COLONIES IN FLORIDA AND SOUTH 
CAROLINA 

The earliest map of the French settlements is: 
(i) Le Moyne de Morgues (Jacques), " Floridae Americae 
Provinciae Recens & exactissima descriptio Auctore lacobo le 
Moyne cui cognomen de Morgues, Qui Laudonierum, Altera 
Gallorum in eam Prouinciam Nauigatione comitat^ est, Atque 
adhibitis aliquot militibus, Ob pericula, Regionis illius interiora 
& maritima diligentissime Lustrauit, «Sz: Exactissime dimensus 
est, Obseruata etiam singulorum Fluminum inter se distantia, 
ut ipsemet redux Carolo IX Galliarum Regi, demonstrauit. " 
In Part II. of T. De Bry's Historia Americce^ Francoforti ad 
Moenum, 1591. There are good reproductions of the map in 
Narrative of Le Moyne . . . translated from the Latin of 
De Bry, Boston, 1875. Shipp's j^TzV^'^rj' of Hernando de Soto 
and Florida. Gaffarel's Histoire de la Floride Fran false. 
Ruidiaz's La Florida, tomo i. Winsor's Narr. a?id Crit. 
ILisi. Am., vol. ii., p. 274. 

Generally speaking, the Atlantic coast-line runs north-east 
and south-west. On the northern margin of the map is shown 
the southern section of a great body of water without any 
legend, Verrazano's sea according to Winsor {T^e Kohl Col- 
lection, by Justin Winsor, with Index by Philip Lee Phillips. 



Appendix J 411 

Library of Congress, Washington, 1904, p. 89), probably the 
Pacific, as in the Miinster map of 1540 and others of a similar 
type. Directly south of this body of water are the " Montes 
Apalatci, " with a small lake at their foot fed by a spring gush- 
ing out of the mountains. Along the north-eastern Atlantic 
coast two nameless rivers, one coming from the north and the 
other from the north-west, unite to form Port Royal Sound. 
Two streams connect the rivers together at some distance from 
their confluence, which gives them somewhat the appearance 
of an inverted V- Farther down the coast the " F. Maij " (the 
St. John's) flows north-westerly for about a third of its length, 
and then sends a branch abruptly to the south-west in a direc- 
tion approximately parallel with the coast. It surrounds in its 
course an island named Edelano {Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 
75; Hak., vol. ii., p. 485; De Bry, Brevis Narratio, pp. 15, 
19), identified by Mr. Fairbanks with Drayton Island {Hist, 
of Florida, Philadelphia, 1871, p. 105), and terminates in a 
nameless lake bearing a legend to the effect that one shore 
cannot be seen from the other {Hist. Notable, Basanier, p. 75; 
Hak., vol. ii., p. 485). This was the highest point on the 
river reached by the French and is identified by Mr. Fairbanks 
{ibid., p. 105) with Lake George, a body of water twenty miles 
long and twelve broad, distant about a hundred miles from the 
mouth of the river {Memoir . . . of Florida, by William 
Darby, Philadelphia, 1821, p. 17). 

Still farther south is a small lake called " Sarrope " {Hist. 
Notable, Basanier, p. 73; Hak., vol. ii., p. 483; De Bry, 
Brevis Nar ratio, p. 17), which Brinton {Notes on the Floridian 
Peninsula, Philadelphia, 1859, p. 117), and after him Parkman 
{Pioneers of France in the New World, Boston, 1893, p. 80), 
think may be Lake Ware in Marion County; but it is far more 
probable that it is an echo of Lake Okeechobee, as identified 
by Powell (" Indian Linguistic Families," in Seventh Ann. 
Rep. Bu. Ethn., 1885-1886, p. 123), the Lake Mayaimi of 
Fontanedo (" Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la 
Florida," Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias, tomo v., p. 534). A second 
arm of the " F. Maij " extends to the north and terminates 
in the vicinity of the great unnamed body of water. 



412 The Spanish Settlements 

The map embodies data derived from three different sources 
of information. The first and most reliable are those within 
the sphere of Le Moyne's personal observation, which in- 
cludes, so far as we are aware, the region immediately around 
Fort Caroline, such as the countries of Saturiba and Alima- 
cany. Le Moyne says that he was wounded in an expedition 
against Outina, consequently he went a certain distance up 
the river, and villages such as Malica, Casti, Melona, and 
Timoga, are probably correctly placed. Data of the second 
class are those derived from Le Moyne's companions. Thus 
Port Royal was previously known to Laudonniere, and during 
Le Moyne's residence in Florida a captain was sent to Audusta 
to renew the relations between him and the French. An ex- 
pedition was also sent up the St. John's to the island of 
Edelano and to the edge of the lake of the unseen shore, Lake 
George. " Calos " was heard of from the escaped Spaniards, 
but the vagueness of the information which they gave is indi- 
cated by the location which Le Moyne has given to Lake 
Sarrope (Lake Okeechobee). These data also are deserving of 
a varying degree of credit. Belonging to the same class, but 
of inferior credibility, are the data obtained from the Indians, 
which we can determine by a process of exclusion to include 
all of the remaining indications on the map relating to the 
interior of the country. The third class consists of data de- 
rived from prior records, such as the shape of the Peninsula, 
and the names along the coast of foreign origin, such as Sinus 
loannis Ponce, F. Canotes, F. Pacis, Aquatio, and the names 
along the Carolina coast, which, according to Winsor ( TJieKohl 
Collection, p. 89), indicate that Le Moyne used Spanish drafts 
of the coast. 

This map has exerted a great influence upon the subsequent 
cartography of this region. One or more of the features just 
described reappear in Dutch, French, and English maps for 
over a century and a quarter subsequent to its publication, 
either as laid down by Le Moyne or in the modified form given 
them by Mercator. To this influence Dr. Shea has given a 
very brief reference in his "Ancient Florida," in Narr. and 
Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 274, note i. But Andre Thevet's 



Appendix J 413 

map of "Le Nouveau Monde descovvert et illvstre de nostre 
temps," in his La Cosmographie Uiiiverselle, Paris, 1575, to 
which Dr. Shea refers, is on too small a scale to be of interest, 
and shows the Florida Peninsula without details and without 
the French names. 

(2) With (John), also styled John White, " Map of southern 
part of the Atlantic coast of North America, showing the 
strait leading from Port Royal to the South Sea," 1585, MS. 
Brit. Museum. First published in reduced facsimile in " The 
Beginnings of a Nation," by Edward Eggleston, in the 
Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Nov., 1882, vol. xxv., 
pp. 66, 67, where it is accidentally dated 1685, There is a 
larger reproduction entitled " Chart of Virginia and Florida, 
by John White," in The Principal Navigations . . . of 
the English Nation ... by Richard Hakluyt, Glasgow, 
MCMIV., vol. viii., between pp. 400, 401. It is also repro- 
duced on a smaller scale, and with most of the names omitted, 
by Justin Winsor in his Christopher Columbus, Boston and New 
York, 1891, p. 589. 

The Atlantic coast outline of the Florida portion of this map 
corresponding to that shown by Le Moyne differs materially 
from the latter. The trend of the coast from the Cape of 
Florida to Port Royal is substantially north and south. The 
promontory formed by the River of May and the River of 
Dolphins in Le Moyne is here a peninsula projecting due east 
far into the Atlantic, and Cape Canaveral has undergone a 
like change. The two rivers which unite to form Port Royal 
flow, the one east and the other nearly west, in place of south 
and south-east, as in Le Moyne, and the stream from the west 
is a strait connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific. The River 
of May rises in a western lake and flows due east, without 
turning to the south or having any northern affluent, as in Le 
Moyne. All of the names are in French, and the names of 
the rivers are those given by Laudonniere, and follow in the 
same order, with the exception of the " Belle a veoir, " which 
is omitted. They also correspond in name and order to 
Ribaut's list, but include the Gironde, which he omits. The 
"Monies Apalatci " of Le Moyne become the " Montagnei 



4H The Spanish Settlements 

Pallassi," but retain substantially the same position as in Le 
Moyne's map. The Indian names, "Vlina, " " Machiaca," 
" Satvriona, " " Oatchaqva, " and " Catos, " correspond to Le 
Moyne's " Vtina," "Mathiaca," "Saturnva," "Oathkaqua," 
and "Calos"; but are placed in different locations from those 
given by Le Moyne, except for Satvriona and Catos, which 
have the same position in both maps. Le Moyne's " lake of 
the unseen shore" has been moved north and becomes the 
western source of the River of May, but it is without any 
legend. Le Moyne's " Sarrope " is " Sieropea, " and remains 
in substantially the same position in both maps, but his 
crescent-shaped lake and the lake of the gushing spring are 
omitted. 

These differences are too pronounced for the map to have 
been based upon the Le Moyne map, to which With might have 
had access prior to its publication by De Bry in 1591. The 
supposition that the information was obtained from Ribaut's 
relation published in 1563, and the maps Ribaut says he trans- 
mitted with his report, is excluded, because the data therein 
contained relate to his first voyage and the founding of Charles- 
fort. Laudonniere's relation was first published in the follow- 
ing year, 1586, and Le ChaMeux' s Discours, printed at Dieppe 
in 1566, is not sufficiently definite in its descriptions of the 
country. The evidence as a whole appears to point to an 
independent French source for the new data given by the map, 
to a person familiar with Laudonniere's exploration of the St. 
John's, the escape of the Spaniards from the Caloosas, and the 
report of the rivers seen by Ribaut on his first voyage. If 
a suggestion may be ventured it is possible that the information 
upon which With based his map, in so far as the Florida por- 
tion of it is concerned, was furnished him by a member of 
Laudonniere's colony who had escaped the massacre. The 
name of the map-maker, John With, in place of John White, 
as it is usually written, is here used in view of the lucid argu- 
ment in its favour made by Mr. P. Lee Phillips in his " Virginia 
Cartography," Smithsonian Miscellaneoiis Collections, Washing- 
ton, 1896, p. 3. 

(3.) Mercator (Gerard). " Virginiae item et Floridae Ameri- 



Appendix J 415 

cante Provinciarum, nova descriptio." In Gerardi Mercatoris, 
Atlas sive cosmographtcce meditationes de fahrica tnundi et fabi-i- 
cati figura . . . auctus et illustratus a ludoco Hondio 
, aditae . . . descriptiones novae; studio et opera 
Pet. Montani. Dispensis Cornelli Nicolai Amsterodami, 1606, 
p. 347. The legend affixed to the map says: " Verum nos 
earn solummodo Floridse partem hie apposiuim^ cujus pleniorem 
notitiam habemus ex ipso autographo illius qui hanc nomine 
regis Galliae accuratissime descripsit." This probably refers 
to Laudonniere's Histoire Notable^ Paris, 1586, and put into 
English by Hakluyt in the following year (1587), for the data 
given in Ribaut's True and last discoverie of 1563 are insuffi- 
cient to form the basis of a map. Le Moyne's map, however, 
has very largely influenced him, for the Port Royal River is 
reproduced as in the Le Moyne map; the Appalachian Moun- 
tains with the lake and gushing spring, the lake to the south, 
and the small lake Sarrope. But the River of May has become 
much more tortuous. Its northerly arm now takes its rise in 
the lake of the unseen shores, which is here placed immedi- 
ately south-west of the mountains, while its south-westerly arm 
has been changed into a small western extension without any 
lake. In a word, while all of the main features of Le Moyne 
have been retained, a transposition has taken place as to the 
lake, and consequently in the direction of the course of the 
River of May, which flows from it. 

For the entire seventeenth century this map of Mercator be- 
came the source from which the mapmakers drew all of their 
information concerning the territory occupied by the French. 

(4.) Hondius (Henricus) in his " Virginiae item et Floridae 
Americae Provinciarum Nova Descriptio," 1633, reprints it 
bodily. 

(5.) Jansson (Joannes) in his " Virginise partis australis, et 
Floridae partis orientalis, interjacentiumq? regionum nova de- 
scriptio " (In Le Noveau Theatre du Afonde ou Novvel Atlas ^ 
Amstelodami. Apud loan lanssonium, 1642, vol. iii., pt. 2) 
puts it in a more finished dress. (6) Guillaume Bleau in 
Le Theatre du Alonde ou Novvel Atlas^ Mis en lumiere par 
Gvillavme et lean Blaev. Segonde partie (Amsterdam, 1644), 



4i6 The Spanish Settlements 

Amerique, between pp. lo, n; (7) Joannes Blaeu in his Atlas 
major, sive cosmographia Blaviatia (Amst., J. Blaeu, 1662) vol. 
ii., "America," between pp. 41, 42, and in other editions; 
(8) Carel Allard in his Atlas Minor (Amstelodami ex officina 
Caroli Allard [1696?] No. 141); and (9) Gerard Valk and Peter 
Schenk (Amstelodami), [17 10?], all reprint the map with the 
same title and apparently from the same plates with an occa- 
sional insignificant change of some of the lettering and the 
addition or removal of an ornamental design. And (10) 
Arnoldus Montanus in his De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld 
of Beschryving van A//ie7-ica en t Zuid-land . . . Door Ar- 
noldus Montanus (t' Amsterdam . . . 167 1) between pp. 
142, 143 reproduces it with the same title in smaller size. 

(11.) Lescarbot (Marc), " Figure et description de la terre 
reconue et habitee par les Francois en la Floride et audepa, 
gisante par les 30, 31 et 32 degrez." De la main de M. Marc 
Lescarbot. (In his Histoire de la JVouvelle Fratice, Paris, 161 1, 
facing p. 596.) This map, while very different in outline from 
the Mercator of 1606, still plainly shows its influence. But 
the " R. Loire " has extended northward until it takes its rise 
in the lake of the gushing spring. The lake of the unseen 
shores has moved farther north, and the " R. des Dauphins " 
has at last found its source in Lake " Sarope." 

(12.) Dudley (Robert), " La Florida," in Del V Arcano del 
Mare, di D. Rvberto Dvdleo Dvca di Nortvmbria et conte di 
Warvich. . . . Firenze . . . 1630. Dudley gives in 
two instances Spanish equivalents for French names which 
appear on Le Moyne's map, whose influence he shows. 

(13.) Laet (Jean de), " Florida et Regiones Vicinae, " 
In L' Histoire du Nouveau Monde . . . Par le Sieur lean 
de Laet ... A Leyde, 1640, p. 102, follows the 1606 
Mercator, 

(14.) Sanson d'Abbeville (N.), " Le Nouveau Mexique et 
la Floride . . ." Paris . , . 1656. (This map was 
republished in 1679 with a change in the date and an unim- 
portant addition to the title.) This map shows the Mercator 
influence as does (15) Du Val (P). " La Floride Fran^oise 
Dressee sur La Relation des Voyages que Ribaut, Laudonier, 



Appendix K 4^7 

€t Gourgues y ont faits en 1562, 1564 et 1567." Par P. Du 
Val, Geographe du Roy, in Diverses Cartes et Tables pour la 
Geographie Ancienne. . . . Par P. Du Val . . . Paris 
. . . 1665. And (16) Speed (John), "A New Descrip- 
tion of Carolina," in The Theatre of the Empire of Great 
Britain, by John Speed, London, 1676, between pp. 49, 50. 

With the opening of the eighteenth century and the gradual 
advance of the English to the south the country became better 
known, as may be seen in (17) Guillaume de I'lsle's " Carte 
du Mexique et de la Floride " of 1703, where the French 
names begin to disappear and are replaced by Indian names 
known to the English. But the influence of the Mercator map 
continued to show itself, on occasion, far into the century, as in 
(18) Nicolas de Fer's " Partie Meridionale de la Riviere du 
Mississippi" of 17 18, where a "Riviere de Mai" still flows 
from north to south, and in (19) Guillaume de I'lsle's 
"Amerique Septentrionale" (Chez Covens & Mortier) of about 
1730, and in (20) Johannes Keulen's " Pas Kaart van West 
Indien, " of about 1735, where the French names for the rivers 
are still retained. It may be said in conclusion that the Le 
Moyne and Mercator maps and those of the preceding list give 
the location of a great number of Indian villages mentioned in 
the Relations; but they appear to be largely the result of mere 
guesswork and quite undeserving of serious consideration until 
better evidence of their accuracy can be secured than can be 
commanded in the present state of our knowledge. 

APPENDIX K 

LA TERRE DES BRETONS 

The Portuguese Portolano, dated 15 14 by Kunstmann and 
1520 by Kohl {Discovery of Maine, p. 179), reproduced in 
Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iii., p. 56, shows Nova Scotia 
with the legend: " Tera que foij descuberta por bertomas." 
Ribero's chart of 1529, a section of which is reproduced in 
Narr. a?id Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iv., p. 38, shows the legend 
" Trra de Breto " on the Nova Scotia coast. The legend on 



41 8 The Spanish Settlements 

the mainland to the west of it reads: " Tiera de Esteva 
Gomez la qual descubrio por mandado de su mag. el ano de 
1525 " etc. The Miinster map of 1540 (See Narr. and Crit. 
Hist. Am., vol. iii., p. 201, and iv., p. 41) shows Nova 
Scotia with the legend: " C. Britonum, " and on the main- 
land to the west, " Francisca." The section of the Ulpius 
Globe of 1542, reproduced in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. 
iv., pp. 42 and 82, shows the " Cavo de Brettoni " with the 
legend appended to the mainland: " Verrazana sive Nova 
Gallia aver razano florentino comperta anno sal, M.D." The 
Henri II. map of 1546 by the Abbe Desceliers {Narr. and Crit. 
Hist. Am., vol. iv., pp. 85, 86) shows Nova Scotia with the 
legend: " Terre des Bretons." The map by the same author, 
No. 9814 of the British Museum, dated 1550, and reproduced 
in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iv., p. 87, has the legend 
" Tierra de los Bretones " on the mainland, west of what is 
now Nova Scotia. The map in Baptista Agnese's Venetian 
atlas of 1554 {Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iv., p. 90) shows 
Nova Scotia with the legend: " Tarra de los bertoms." Rus- 
celli in his map of 1561, reproduced in Narr. and Crit. Hist. 
Am., vol. iv., p. 92, shows Nova Scotia with the legend: 
" Tierra de los Breton." The sketch of the Des Liens map 
of 1566 in Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iv., p. 79, shows 
Nova Scotia with the legend " Cap aux Bretons," and to the 
west of it, on the continent: " La nouv. France." 

APPENDIX L 

PORTRAITS OF PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILIES 

There is a copperplate engraving published in Retratos 
de los Espaiioles Ilustres con un Epitome de sus Vidas. De Orden 
Superior. En la Imprenta Real de Madrid. Siendo su Re- 
gente D. Lazaro Gayguer. 1791." It is entitled: "Pedro 
Menendez de Aviles, Natural de Aviles en Asturias, Com- 
endador de la orden de Santiago, Conquistador de la Florida, 
nombrado Gral de la Armada contra Jnglaterra, Murio en 
Santander A" 1574, a los 55, de edad." It is drawn by Josef 
Camaron, and engraved by Franco de Paula Marte, 1791. It 



Appendix L 4^9 

measures 23 x 17 cms. It is said in the Biblioteca Nacional, 
Madrid, Sec. de Bellas Artes, Dibujos Originales, that the 
portraits in this work are not all of equal authority. 

This portrait, a reduced photogravure facsimile of which is 
given in the frontispiece of this volume, has been frequently 
reproduced in whole or in part. There is a copy in Rui- 
diaz, La Florida, tomo i. Mr. Parkman has engraved the 
head for his Pioneers of France in the New World. Dr. Shea 
used the plate for his Charlevoix, and it also appears in Charles 
B. Reynolds's Old St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Florida, 5th 
Edit., p. 45). The head has also been reproduced in La 
Ilustracion Espanola y Americana of Nov. 15, 1880, in La 
Ilustracion Gallega y Asturiana, of March 10, 1879, ^.nd in 
Duro's Armada Espaiiola, tomo ii,, p. 214. It is apparent 
that the date of the likeness is subsequent to January ig, 
1568, at about which time he was appointed to the Com- 
mandery of the Holy Cross of Zarza, the insignia of which, a 
crimson cross in the shape of an antique sword, appears in the 
portrait. (See p. 292, note 3, in this volume.) 

Ruidiaz, in the preface to his La Florida (tomo i., p. 
cxvii., note **) says that according to Canon Posada there was 
a portrait of Aviles by Titian in the possession of the first Duke 
of Almodovar del Rio. He also cites Pezuelo to the effect 
that there was a good engraving by Coello made after an an- 
cient portrait in the house of Doiia Ana Antonia Suarez de 
Gongora, ninth Adelantado of Florida. In the " Peticion de 
Don Martin Menendez de Abiles, sobre que se le conceda 
licencia para ir a Mexico y otras mercedes fundado en los 
servicios prestados per sus antecesores " (Arch. Gen. de 
Indias, Seville, est. 54, caj. 5, leg. 18) we learn that Philip 
II. ordered the portrait of Pedro Menendez de Aviles to be 
painted and placed in his gallery among those of other illus- 
trious individuals and conquerors of provinces, and this may 
be the above mentioned Titian portrait. 

COAT OF ARMS OF PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVIL]£s 

The Coat of Arms of Aviles is given by Ruidiaz in his La 
Florida, tomo i., p. cxviii. It consists of a field gules on 



420 The Spanish Settlements 

which is an armed vessel under sail with a cross on the main- 
mast and a saw on the bow breaking a large chain suspended 
between two castles (Vigil, Noticias, p. 15). This is in 
allusion to a deed of an ancestor in an encounter with the 
Moors on the Guadalquivir. 

APPENDIX M 

THE DEPOSITION OF JEAN MEMYN 

Jean Memyn was from La Rochelle and was a member of 
Ribaut's final expedition. He was made a prisoner on the 
capture of Fort Caroline, but, coming to Spain with his captor, 
escaped from him, and on October 16, 1566, made a deposi- 
tion at the request of M. de Fourquevaux, the French Am- 
bassador at Madrid. The deposition is a curious jumble of 
fact and fancy. He says that on Ribaut's arrival in Florida 
he was attacked by a combined fleet consisting of twenty-five 
Spanish and Portuguese vessels from which Ribaut fled in his 
six ships. Memyn gives a confused account of Ribaut's ship- 
wreck; tells of the surprise of Fort Caroline, in which the 
Portuguese were as many, if not more in number than 
the Spaniards, and were the more cruel of the two; says the 
women and children were sent to Puerto Rico; that 350 men 
were killed in the attack on the fort and in a neighbouring 
island, probably the Matanzas massacre, and that Ribaut's 
beard was cut off to send to the King of Spain. He adds that 
seventeen or eighteen sailors were alive and prisoners at Ha- 
vana {De'phhes de M. de Fourquevaux, tome i., pp. 131-133). 
The curious feature in this relation is the gratuitous and whole- 
sale importation of the Portuguese into the conquest, a state- 
ment which so impressed Fourquevaux, that he again refers to 
it in a subsequent letter of November 2, 1566, to the King. 

APPENDIX N 

THE CAPTURED FRENCH VESSELS 

The six vessels captured at Fort Caroline by the Spaniards 
were: (i) The one remaining ship of Laudonniere's fleet; (2) 



Appendix O ■ 421 

The vessel brought in by the mutineers; (3 and 4) Two small 
shallops; (5) A galley on the stocks; (6) The vessel purchased 
from Hawkins. It seems altogether probable from the Spanish 
account, and in part from the French, that these six ships were 
up the river, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the fort. 

When Aviles attacked the fort he sank one of these vessels. 
Laudonniere acknowledges {Hisioire JVoiable, Basanier, p. 112; 
Hak., vol. ii., p. 521) that he left the vessel purchased from 
Hawkins behind. Le Moyne (De Bry, Brevis JVarraiio, p. 
27) says that Laudonniere scuttled (i) his own ship and (6) 
the vessel purchased from Hawkins. If we accept the assump- 
tion that the ships which he scuttled were at Fort Caroline, it 
is difficult to understand how Laudonniere could have accom- 
plished it, considering his own story of his escape; and if he 
had really scuttled them he would have stated it in his ac- 
count in order to palliate his defeat. Instead of so doing he 
admits having abandoned one of them to the enemy and does 
not mention the fate of the others. 

Mendoza (" Relacion" in Ruidfaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 
459) says there were six vessels in the river including two 
which were at the river's mouth, four of which were captured 
including the vessel sunk or disabled by Aviles. Thus the 
evidence, although conflicting, has a tendency to confirm 
Aviles's statement that five French ships were left behind. Of 
Ribaut's fleet of seven vessels four were wrecked, one was 
scuttled, and two returned to France. No reason can be 
assigned for doubting the statement made by Aviles, and twice 
repeated in his letter, that in addition to these five he found 
two other boats stolen by the French. 

APPENDIX O 

THE OATH OF AVILES 

Spanish Accounts — The First Massacre. — We have four 
sources which repeat the terms offered by Aviles to the 
French. The first is Aviles himself. In his letter of October 
15, 1565 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 89), he writes that 



422 The Spanish Settlements 

Laudonniere's lieutenant "abiendo dado y tornado conmigo, 
ofreciome que me entregarian las armas y se darian con que les 
otorgase la vida. Respondile que las armas me podian rendir 
y ponerse debaxo de mi gracia para que yo hiziese dellos 
aquello que Nuestro Seiior me ordenase; y de aqui no me 
saco ni sacara, si Dios Nuestro Senor no esperara en mi otra 
cosa; y ansi se fue con esta respuesta, " etc. 

The second is Dr. Gonzalo Solis de Meras, his brother-in- 
law. Meras (in Ruidiaz, La Florida^ tomo i., p. 114), after 
repeating in substance the declaration of enmity which has 
just been quoted in the text (p. 191 in this volume), follows it 
immediately with the terms of the oath: " que si ellos querian 
entregarle las banderas e las armas, e ponerse a su misericordia, 
lo podian hacer, para que el hiciera dellos lo que Dios le diese 
de gracia, 6 que hiciesen lo que quisieren, que otras treguas 
ni amistades no hablan de hacer con el; y aunque el Capitan 
Frances replied, no se pudo acabar otra cosa con el Adelan- 
tado; e ansi se partio para su gente, " etc. 

The third is Barrientos (" Hechos, " in Garcia, Dos Antiguas 
Relaciones de la Florida, p. 64), who uses almost identically the 
same language as Meras. After repeating the declaration of 
enmity, he follows it immediately with the terms: "que si ellos 
quisieren entregalle las banderas y armas, y ponerse a miseri- 
cordia,lo podian hacer para q el haga lo q dios le diere de gracia; 
o determinen lo que quieren: q otras treguas ni amistades no 
auian de hacer Con el: ansi no se pudo acauar Con el ade- 
lantado otra cosa: partiose Con esto para su gente a decilles 
lo cjue pasaua, " etc. 

The fourth is the chaplain Mendoza (Ruidiaz, La Florida^ 
tomo ii., p. 464), who was a member of Aviles's council {ibid., 
tomo ii., p. 454, "deputado para las consultas "), was present 
at the massacre, and saved the lives of the Roman Catholics 
among the Frenchmen. He says: "Vino un gentil-hombre 
f ranees, sargento, y truxo un mensaje del real de los enemigos 
en que pedian que se les otorgase la vida, y que rendirian las 
armas y entregarian las personas; y despues de mucho parla- 
mento entre el y nuestro buen General, respondio y dixo que 
no les queria dar tal palabra, sino que truxesen las armas y sus 



Appendix O 423 

personas para que el hiziese a su voluntad; por que si el les 
diese la vida queria que se lo agradeciesen; y si la muerte, 
que no se quejasen de abersela quebranto; visto que no podian 
hazer otru oosa, se volvio a su real," etc. 

The Second Massacre. — Aviles in the letter already- 
quoted {ibid., p. 102) says that Ribaut " sobre seguro enbio a 
su Sargento mayor a hablar conmigo. . . . Respondile lo 
que a los otros: que yo era enemigo suyo y tenia guerra con 
ellos a fuego y sangre, por ser luteranos y por venir a plantar 
a estas tierras de V. M. su mala secta y d doctrinar los yndios 
della, y desenganarle que su fuerte teniamos ganado; que me 
entregasen las banderas y las armas y se pusiesen debaxo de 
mi gracia, para que hiziese de sus personas lo que quisiese, y 
que otra cosa no avian de hazer ni acabar conmigo. Y avien- 
dose ydo con este recado el Sargento mayor," etc. Meras, 
who was present at this massacre, and was one of the two who 
stabbed Jean Ribaut, says {ibid., p. 123) that when Ribaut came 
to treat of the terms " el Adelantado le respondio lo que a los 
primeros franceses de que hizo hacer justicia, e dando e to- 
mando con ^1, no pudo acabar otra cosa el Juan Ribao con el 
Adelantado." Barrientos {ibid., p. 68) merely says that in the 
interview with Ribaut " el adelantado le Respondio lo que a 
los otros, y con el no pudo acauar otra cosa." 

We have thus the concurrent testimony of Mendoza and of 
Meras to the terms in which Aviles made his promise to the 
French, one of them having been present at one massacre, 
and the other at the other. The statement of Barrientos is 
not of equal importance with that of the two just mentioned 
iDecause he appears to have drawn his information for this part 
of his history from a source common to himself and Meras. 
It is difficult to imagine any connivance between Aviles, the 
chaplain, and the brother-in-law to misrepresent the words 
used, because it is not easy to conceive what motive there 
could be for so doing. 

French Accounts — Second Massacre. — We have but two 
original accounts of the oath of Aviles from the French side, 
and both of them relate to the second massacre. The first is 
that given by the Dieppe sailor and reported by Le Moyne, 



424 The Spanish Settlements 

a translation of which appears in the text (p. 202 in this vol- 
ume). The paragraph describing the promise in the original 
is: " Ille Caillii oratione audita, non modo conceptis verbis 
fidem Caillio dedit, quam repetitis multis crucis signis, osculo 
sancitis, confirmavit, sed etiam juratam cora omni suorum 
caterva, & scriptam suoq; sigillio obfirmatam tradere voluit, 
per quam denuo jurabat, & pollicebatur, se sine fraude, fide- 
liter, & ut virum nobilem atque probum decet Ribaldi atque 
militum ipsius vitam conservaturum: datae sunt igitur litterae 
eleganter scriptae," etc. {Brevis Narratio, pp. 28, 29). 

The second is that of Le Challeux ('* Histoire Memorable," 
reprint in Gaffarel, pp. 474, 475), who has also preserved an 
account of the same event, but does not positively state its 
origin. As he ascribes the report of the mutilation of Ribaut's 
body to the sailor Christophe le Breton, from Havre de Grace, 
one of the persons saved from the massacre, it is possible that 
he learned it from him. It is as follows: " Les deleguez [of 
Ribaut] furent repus de prime face assez humainement. Le 
capitaine de ceste compagnie espagnole, lequel se faisoit nom- 
mer Vallemande, protesta en foy de gentilhomme, chevalier 
et chrestien, de sa bienveillance envers les Francois, mesme- 
ment que c'estoit la fa^on qui avoit este de tout temps pra- 
tiquee en la guerre que I'Espagnole victorieux se contentast, 
a I'endroit du Francois principalement, sans passer plus outre: 
exhortant en truchement, afin q'tous fussent persuadez de ceste 
belle promesse, que iamais il ne voudroit faire faire en ceste 
endroit, de quoy les nations se puissent en apres ressentir, et 
prestement fist accoustrer une barque," etc. Fourquevaux in 
his letter to Charles IX. of July 5, 1566, says: "qu'il m'a est6 
diet que led. Menendes avoit receu vosd. subjectz la vie 
sauve et promis de les fere mener en Espagne pour y attendre 
I'adveu ou desadveu de Votred. Majeste " {De'peches, p. 93). 

This is the evidence on the French side. Its characteristics 
are that it reaches us indirectly, neither Le Moyne nor Le 
Challeux having been present at the massacre; that the two 
sailors were not of a rank, nor in a position to be informed as 
to what were the exact terms of the promise made by Avil^s 
to Ribaut, but knew only the construction put upon it in the 



Appendix P 425 

form in which it was announced to them. Stripped of all re- 
ligious prejudice and racial hatred, the credibility of the two 
contradictory accounts resolves itself into a question of the 
relative weight of the evidence. On the one hand is the 
direct testimony of Meras and Mendoza, each witness of one 
of the massacres, each confirming the statement made by 
Aviles, and each in a position which enabled him to obtain 
correct information; and opposed to this, on the other hand, 
are the two concurrent accounts, reaching us at second hand, 
of two sailors, each present at the massacre, from which one 
escaped, and where the other is pardoned, and neither of them 
in a position to obtain direct information. Gaffarel in his 
Histoire de la Floride Frangaise (pp, 222, 223) accepts the 
Spanish version as to the form of Aviles's promise at the first 
massacre, and gives both versions of the promise made at the 
second massacre {ibid., pp. 225, 226) without deciding between 
the two. Parkman in his Pioneers of France in the New World 
(pp. 137 and 142) accepts the Spanish version for both mas- 
sacres, and adds: " That they contain an implied assurance of 
mercy has been held, not only by Protestants, but by Catholics 
and Spaniards"; and he cites in support of his statement 
Salazar, Cricis del Fnsayo, p. 23; and Padre Felipe Briet, Anales. 
The theory has been advanced by Gaffarel (p. 225) that 
Vallemande of Le Challeux was an officer of Aviles, upon 
whom the Adelantado had imposed the burden of perjuring 
himself in the Spanish interest. No corresponding name, or 
one approximately like it, appears among the names of officers 
of the conquest given by Barrientos or by Meras. Neither 
was it in the nature of Aviles to compel another to do that 
which he would not do himself. 

APPENDIX P 

THE DEATH OF RIBAUT 

French Accounts. — Le Chalkux in his Histoire Memorable, 
which was printed at Dieppe in 1566 {JVarr. and Crit. Hist. 
Aiti., vol. ii., p. 296) agrees substantially with the details given 



426 The Spanish Settlements 

by Barrientos, as related in the text, except as to the nature of 
the promise given by Aviles, — a subject which has already been 
considered in Appendix O (p. 421 in this volume), — and as to 
the subsequent treatment of Ribaut's body. He relates on 
the authority of Christophe le Breton, a French sailor spared 
by Aviles, and who on being sent to Seville, had escaped from 
there to Dieppe, " et pour combler leur cruaute et barbaric: 
ils ont rase la barbe du lieutenant du Roy, pour faire monstre 
de leur expedition et Ton bien tost apres envoyee a Civile, 
. et pour le trophee de leur renommee et victoire, de- 
membrerent le corps de ce bon et fidele serviteur du Roy, et 
firent de sa teste quatre quartiers lesquels ils ficherent en 
quatre picques, et puis les planterent aux quatre coings du 
fort" (reprint in Gaffarel, Hist, de la Floride Fran^aise, p. 
476). There is a simplicity and a ring of truth about the Le 
Challeux Relation, the sincerity of which is confirmed by his 
giving the source of this latter report. It will be noted, how- 
ever, that the story comes through Le Breton, who had been 
pardoned by the Spaniards, had been for a short time in their 
service, and whose interest it was to appease the suspicions his 
pardon would naturally excite among his compatriots by ex- 
aggerating the ferocity of the Spaniards. 

October i6th of the same year Jehan Memyn, a French 
sailor also spared by the Spaniards and who had remained in 
Florida for some time subsequent to Ribaut's death, deposed 
that the Spaniards " coupperent plustost la barbe aud. cap"^ 
Ribbault disant la vouloir envoyer au Roy d'Espagne " 
{Bepeches de M. Fourqiievaux, p. 132), but says nothing of his 
head being cut off. 

The Requeste au Roy, the approximate date of which is 
probably August, 1566 (see p. 318 in this volume), and 
which is full of exaggeration, relates (reprint in Gaffarel, p. 
478) that after Ribaut was killed " ledit soldat luy coupa la 
teste, luy raza le poil de la barbe et partit la teste en quatre 
quartiers, qui furent plantez sur quatre picques au milieu de 
la place ou les Francois estoyent morts. Finalement ledit 
capitaine Hespagnol envoya une lettre au Roy d'Hespagne, 
et fit enclore dedans ladite lettre le poil de la barbe dudit 



Appendix P 427 

Ribaut." It conveys the impression that all the women 
and children were killed, which was incorrect. It says tliat 
"seven or eight hundred" Frenchmen were killed. The 
name of Pedro or Pero Menendez, as it was frequently written 
in the Spanish of that time, is transformed to Petremclaud. 
Finally, the description of Ribaut's death has a curious re- 
semblance to that given by Le Challeux, with the exception 
that the head is now erected in a different place. And the 
beard story is almost identical with that told by Memyn. The 
Requeste breathes a spirit of intense excitement and a fierce 
desire for revenge, which, however righteous it was, does not 
inspire the reader with the conviction that the composition of 
the Requeste was governed by a nice weighing of the truth of 
the particular statements which it contains. As the number 
of Frenchmen spared by the Spaniards was very few, and those 
who finally escaped and returned to France were fewer still, 
it is highly probable that the Requeste derived this information 
from Le Challeux and Memyn. 

La Popeliniere, in Les trois Mondes (1582, liv. ii., p. 34), 
reported that the Spaniards '* escorcherent la peau du visage 
avec la longue barbe de Ribaut, les yeux, le nez et oreilles, et 
envoyerent ainsi le masque defigure au Perou, pour en faire 
des montres. ' ' Lescarbot in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France 
(161 1, p. 120), relates that "after several tortures they cruelly 
skinned him (contrary to all the laws of war that ever were) 
and sent his skin to Europe." De Thou adds nothing further 
to this catalogue of atrocities. 

It thus appears that the only contemporary French evidence 
which we have of the indignities inflicted on Ribaut's body is 
that of Le Challeux and Memyn. It is to be noted that Bar- 
rientos, who finished the writing of his history December 30, 
1568, explicitly states that Ribaut's head was cut off, a fact 
passed over by Meras and Aviles. When we bear in mind that 
Philip spoke of the French in Florida as pirates and corsairs, 
who should be treated as such, and recall the customs of that 
age, there would be nothing unusual in the proceeding had 
Aviles caused the head of a pirate to be cut off and exhibited 
on the point of a spear at Fort St. Augustine. The legend of 



428 The Spanish Settlements 

the shaven beard sent to Spain is too puerile to deserve con- 
sideration. Aviles was a nobleman of high rank and of 
acknowledged courage, and the man who wrote the modest 
and business-like reports of September and October would be 
far above such pettiness. The French are an excitable people 
of vivid imagination, and although of an eminently artistic 
temperament, lose all sense of proportion the moment their 
antipathy is aroused, and lend a willing ear to the wildest 
rumours. The ready acceptance given within the last decade 
to the reported correspondence of a German emperor with an 
alleged spy furnishes us with a recent parallel. 

Spanish Accounts of Ribaut's Death. — Vasalenque, 
who appears to have been present on this occasion, for he 
served in the company of Diego de Amaya which was sent to 
the scene of the massacre by Aviles (Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomo ii., pp. 615 and 616), gives a somewhat different account 
of the death of Ribaut. He relates that after a demonstration 
of banners and music on each side, Jean Ribaut came over 
alone, at about noon in an Indian canoe, " and the first thing 
he did was to take off his sword and dagger, and some keys, 
which he took out of his pocket and surrendered them and the 
said fort to the said Adelantado; and the said Adelantado told 
him that he had already captured the fort; and the said Juan 
Ribao asked after his son, and the said Adelantado told him 
he had escaped in a boat; and thereupon there was a long 
conversation between them alone; and after that the said 
Adelantado said that the said Juan Ribao be given something 
to eat, and it was given him; and wishing to return to his 
people, for it was already late, he was given two bags of 
biscuits and other things. And all that night there was a 
great stir among the French, on account of which Pedro 
Menendez and his soldiers remained under arms all night, 
and at dawn all of the French came unarmed to the river 
bank, asking to be taken across, and they were taken over 
in boats; and when they had arrived where the said Pedro 
Menendez was, they were given something to eat, and within 
an hour they \i. e., the Spaniards] began to march with them 
according to a certain command which the said Adelantado 



Appendix Q 429 

gave, and on turning a point of land the Spanish soldiers be- 
gan to cut off the heads of all of them, without one of them 
escaping, nor the said Juan Ribao, except a few lads mechanics 
of the said Juan Ribao and some calkers." This deposition 
was made thirty years after the event (" Informacion de 
algunos servicios prestados por el Adelantado Pedro Menendez 
de Aviles," Mexico, 3 de Abril de 1595, in Ruidiaz, ibid., 
tomo ii., pp. 615-617). 

Silva in his letter to Philip II. of May 18, 1566 {Corre- 
spondencia de Felipe II. con sus Enbajadores en la Corte de 
Inglaterra i^^8 d 1^84, tomo ii., p. 319; English translation 
in Spanish State Papers., i^^8-6y, I. Elizabeth, 551), gives a 
paragraph to the wreck of Ribaut and his death, as it was re- 
lated to him by an English sailor who had been taken in a 
vessel captured by Aviles before the Florida incident, and 
who claimed to have been present at the death of Ribaut. 

APPENDIX Q 

THE SITUATION OF AVILES AT THE TIME OF THE MASSACRE 

Philip II., in his letter to Alava of February 23, 1566 (MS. 
Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1505 (75), fol. 2b), tells him that when 
Fourquevaux complained "that a great cruelty had been com- 
mitted in putting so many soldiers to the knife after they had 
surrendered," one of the explanations given him in extenua- 
tion of the act of Aviles was the following: " In no other way 
in the world could Pero Menendez secure himself against the 
said pirates than in the way he did, for he had nothing to give 
them to eat, and if he had so done, his own people would have 
perished and died of hunger; besides, being as they were so 
many French, and those of Menendez so few, he could place 
them nowhere, where he and his people could be safe, and 
that besides Pero Menendez was obliged to go to other parts, 
and necessarily was compelled to leave part of his people in 
the fort. And leaving the French, who were so many more in 
number, with them, it was evident they would kill our people 
.and take the fort. And as to putting them in the ships, they 



430 The Spanish Settlements 

would not hold them, because they were so small, neither 
could he go away in safety. That as to giving them ships in 
which to go to France, he had none, and even should he have 
had them, it would evidently be providing them with ships 
and facility to disturb him elsewhere." See also Ruidiaz's 
observations in La Florida, tomo i., pp. clxxvi.-clxxvii. 

Relative Number of the French and Spaniards. — 
Avil6s, in his letter of October 15, 1565 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomo ii., pp. 88, 102), sets the minimum number of French- 
men who escaped from the wreck of Ribaut's fleet at 440. 
Merds, in his " Jornadas " {ibid., tomo i., pp. 116, 121), says 
558. The total number of the French, at the lowest estimate, 
including the 50 women and children saved (letter of Octo- 
ber 15, 1565, ibid., p. 87) and the few prisoners spared at Fort 
Caroline, was 500, of whom over 440 were men. Aviles in his 
letter of September 11, 1565 {ibid., tomo ii., p. 75) gives 800 
as the total number of the Spaniards, of whom 500 were sol- 
diers and 200 sailors. The sailors must necessarily have re- 
mained with the fleet. Of the 500 soldiers, 300 were already 
in garrison at San Mateo (Meras, in Ruidiaz, ibid., tomo i., p. 
104) and in November, subsequent to the massacre, 200 were 
left at Ays (Aviles to Philip II., December 5, 1565, ibid, tomo 
ii., p. 107). 

The Food-Supply. — Aviles, in his letter of September 11, 
1565 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 79), wrote that he had 
sufficient biscuit to last him till December, but that he could 
make it go through January. In his letter of October 15, 
1565 {ibid., tomo ii., p. 104), he says: "With the burning of 
the fort we are suffering very greatly from hunger, because 
the meal was burnt up, and the biscuit I landed here is spoil- 
ing and being consumed, and unless we are succoured very 
shortly we will be in suffering and many will depart this world 
from starvation." Meras states (in ibid., tomo i., p. 178) that 
after the burning of Fort Caroline over a hundred casks of 
flour still remained, and although many of the soldiers volun- 
tarily reduced their rations, the supply was exhausted by the 
middle of February. The news of the burning of the exten- 
sive food-supply captured from the French at Fort Caroline 



Appendix R 431 

here referred to reached Aviles in the interval between the 
first and the second massacres. 

Ships. — In the interview preceding the first massacre, when 
Aviles was asked to furnish a ship to convey the French back 
to France, he made the following answer, according to Meras 
(in ibid.^ tomo i., p. 113): " That he would gladly do so were 
they Catholics and had he ships for such a purpose, but that 
he did not have them, for he had sent two to San Mateo with 
the artillery and to transport the French women and the chil- 
dren to Santo Domingo, and to obtain supplies; and the other 
was to go with dispatches to His Majesty of what had so far 
occurred in these parts." He does not mention the San 
Felayo and the San Salvador^ which had sailed some time 
previously. The reply was, however, disingenuous, to say the 
least, for according to his own statement he had found eight 
vessels at Fort Caroline (letter of October 15, 1565, ibid.^ 
tomo ii., pp. 90, 91), of which two or three at the least were 
available. 

APPENDIX R 

AYS 

Juan Lopez de Velasco {Geografta y Descrtpctdn Universal 
de las Indias, i^yi-1^14^ Madrid, 1894, p. 167) places "el Rio 
Asis " in 27 degrees north latitude, south of Cape Canaveral. 
Hernando de Escalante Fontanedo refers to the "Ais" Indians 
and the " coast of Ais " in his " Memoria " {Col. Doc. Inedit. 
Indias, tomo v., pp. 541-543). He mentions Mayaca and 
Mayajuaca as in the country of Ays, in the direction of Cape 
Canaveral (pp. 540, 545). His account was written in Spain 
about 1575 {JVarr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 291, 
note i). Herrera, in his '* Descripci6n de las Indias" (in his 
Decadas, Madrid, 1730, tomo i., cap. viii., p. 15), places it 
south of Cape Canaveral and mentions the settlement made 
there by Aviles. Barcia, in his Ensayo (Ano MDLXVL, p. 
118), places it twenty leagues up the St. John's, beyond Ma- 
coya, possibly the Mayaca of Fontanedo. In this he merely 



432 The Spanish Settlements 

copies the statement made by Meras (in Ruidiaz, La Florida, 
tomo i., p. 253). Brinton, in his Notes on the Floridian Penin- 
sula (Philadelphia, 1859, p. 116, note 3), questions Barcia's 
statement, saying " distances given by the Spanish historians 
are often mere guesses, quite untrustworthy." 

There can be no doubt that the Rio de Ays, Ais, Is, Ys, 
Days, Asis, Aiz, is Indian River. William Roberts, in his 
History of Florida (London, 1763, p. 22), mentions the " Rio 
de Ays, three leagues north of Rio Santa Cruz," which he 
also calls Santa Lucia on the same page, " and in latitude 27 
deg. 45 min.," etc. William Stork in A Description of East- 
Florida (London, 3d ed., 1769, p. 10), says, "We are as yet 
unacquainted with the sources . . . of Hillsborough River; 
it is generally believed to have a communication with an In- 
dian inlet, called by the Spaniards Rio Days, sixty miles to 
the south, where there is such another harbour as Musquito, 
with eight feet water; it is said to communicate with St. John's 
River." Bernard Romans, in his A concise Natural History 
of East atid West Florida (New York, 1775, vol. i., p. 2), says: 
" On the East side [of Florida] is . . . the Lagoon, 
known by the name of Aisa Hatcha, Rio d'ais or Indian 
River" (see also p. 282) and on p. 273 he refers to the names 
of South-hillsborough and Hysweestake given it by De Brahm. 
Both he (p. 273) and Brinton {Floridian Penifisula, p. 116) 
derive the name from a native word, atsa, deer. Grant Forbes, 
in his Sketches, Historical and Topographical, of the Floridas 
(New York, 1821, p. 93), says " the lagoon of Aise or Indian 
River" and on p. 102 he quotes Romans on the "Aisa 
Hatcha." George William Lee in his Florida (New York, 
1857, p. 51), says "Indian River . . . formerly called 
Ys." George R. Fairbanks in his History of St. Augustine 
(New York, 1858, p. 125) says "Indian River was the pro- 
vince of Ys. " Daniel G. Brinton, in his Floridian Peninsula 
(Philadelphia, 1859, p. 116) is disposed to think "Ais" was 
the northern extremity of the province of Tegesta, in which 
he is probably mistaken. He adds: "The residence of the 
chief was near Cape Canaveral, probably on Indian River." 
Barnard Shipp, in his Hernajido dc Soto and Florida (Phila- 



Appendix R 433 

delphia, 1881, p. 560) says " Province of Ais or St. Lucia," 
but in his note, p. 587, he incorrectly locates it at the southern 
extremity of the peninsula. 

Albert S. Gatschet in his " The Timucua Language" {^Pro- 
ceedings of the American Philosophical Society^ Philadelphia, 
1880, vol. xviii., p. 469) says "the northern portion of this 
section of land [/. if., of the " Province of Tequesta, " which he 
locates south of Cape Canaveral] was called in later epochs Ais, 
Ays, Is, and Santa Lucia by the Spaniards. Ais is interpreted 
by aisa, deer, a term not belonging to the Timucua language, 
but identifiable with itcho, deer, in Seminole, or itchi, itche in 
Hitchiti and Mikasuke." In his Migration Legend of the 
Creek Indians (Philadelphia, 1884, vol. i., p. 12) he adheres to 
the same location and places the "Ais " Indians *' from Cape 
Canaveral, where the Spaniards had the post Santa Lucia, to a 
lagoon once called Aisahatcha. " " They formed the northern 
portion of the Tequesta domains " (p. 15). It is to be noted, 
however, that Santa Lucia was not at Cape Canaveral, but 
south of it at the second inlet into the Rio de Ais. In this 
respect Williams in his Florida (pp. 52, 53) observes that In- 
dian Lagoon undergoes frequent changes. (See Appendix S, 
Santa Lucia.) It is to be observed that most of the authori- 
ties quoted subsequent to Romans base their conclusions on 
and quote liberally from him, with and without acknowledging 
their source. 

Ays appears on the following maps: " Derrotero util y pro- 
vechoso y en todo verdadero de Rios, cafios, lagunas, montes, 
poblaciones, envarcaderos, baradereos, rancherias, el qual 
reza desde la ciudad de San Agustin hasta la varra de Ais por 
Albaro Mexia. " MS, Arch., Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patro- 
nato, est. i, caj. i, leg. 1/19, ramo 29. It is accompanied by 
a Relation of 1605 in which "Aiz el biejo " is situated on the 
northern extremity of what is probably Hutchinson Island, 
between the lagoon and the sea. " Mapa de la Florida y 
Laguna de Maimi donde se ha de hacer un fuerte." MS. 
Undated, (1595-1600?), Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 145, 
caj. 7, leg. 7. In this "Ais " is shown as a lagoon. Jean de 
Laet, " Florida et Regiones Vicinse," in his L'Histoire dv 



434 The Spanish Settlements 

Nouveau Monde, Leyde, 1640, between pp. 102, 103. In this 
" R Ayz " is shown as a lagoon. loannes Jansson, "America 
Septentrionalis," in his Nuevo Atlas, Amsterdam, 1653, vol. 
ii. In this it appears as " Enseada \jic\ de Ays." Nicolas 
Bellin, "Carte reduite des Costes de la Louisiane et de la 
Floride," 1764. In this the " R. de Ays" is shown approxi- 
mately correct in position. Fernando Martinez, "Descripcion 
geographica de la parte que los Espanoles poseen actualmente 
en el continente de la Florida," 1765. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 
i7,648A, and in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., between pp. 
xliii., xliv. In this " Rio Ais " is shown as a river and not as 
a lagoon. Thomas Jefferys, "The Peninsula and Gulf of 
Florida or Channel of Bahama with the Bahama Islands," 
1775, i'^ the North American Atlas, London, 1777, No. 34. 
Bernard Romans, " The Seat of War in the South British 
Colonies," 1776, in The American Military Pocket Atlas, 
London (1776), No. 5. John Andrews, "A New Map of 
the British Colonies in North America . . ," 1777. 
Pownall, "A New Map of North America with the West India 
Islands . . ," 1783. All of these three show "Ays 
Inlet." Tomas Lopez, map of Florida, inset to his " Piano 
de la Ciudad y Puerto de San Agustin de la Florida," 1783. 
In this it is shown as " Barra de Ays." George Frederic 
Lotter, " A New and Correct Map of North America with 
the West India Islands . . ," 1784. This shows "Ays 
Inlet" into the "St. Lucia R." Joseph Purcell, "A Map 
of the States of Virginia . . . comprehending the Spanish 
Provinces of East and West Florida. . . ," 1792. This 
shows "Rio Ays or Indian R." John Walsh, " Tabvla 
Geographica maximae partis Amerise Mediae sive Indise Occi- 
dentalis," 1798. This shows " River Ays od. Indian," 

APPENDIX S 

SANTA LUCIA 

The Spaniards named this settlement Santa Lucia (Meras 
in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 169). The name is pre- 



Appendix S 435 

served in that of the St. Lucia River, called on some maps Rio 
Santa Cruz, and " river of St. Luz," probably an abbreviation 
of Santa Lucia, according to Roberts {History of Florida, 
London, 1763, pp. 22, 286), who places it three leagues south 
of the " Rio de Ays" (p. 22). It is to be noted, however, that 
the inlets between the sea and Indian River (Ays) have been 
subject to many changes in the past. John Lee Williams in 
his Florida (New York, 1837, p. 43, and see p. 51), says: "A 
few years since the high waters of St. Lucia River forced a 
passage through the coast at a place called the Gap." "Jupiter 
Inlet has opened and closed three times within seventy years " 
(pp. 52, 53), and: " There is every reason to believe that at 
some period [Indian Lagoon] discharged a great column of 
water at Cape Canaveral" {ibid.). "St. Lucia Island was. 
formerly connected with Jupiter. . . . In 183 1 a mile in 
front of the north end of the island was torn away by storms" 
(p. 43). The name of " New Inlet " opening into " Sharks 
Head and Tail River" (Lake Worth?) in Thomas Jeff erys's 
map of "East Florida" appended to A Description of East 
Florida hy WiXWdiYC]. Stork, 3rd edition, London, 1769, indicates 
a recent inroad of the sea similar to that mentioned by Wil- 
liams. In the Mexia map referred to below there was a second 
inlet to the Matanzas River, named Barreta de Ribao, south 
of the present Matanzas Inlet. Bernard Romans {A concise 
Natural History of East and West Florida, New York, 1775, 
vol. i., pp. 34, 284-286) merely describes the river and has 
nothing of interest to add. 

The cartography is somewhat curious. In Mexia's map of 
1605 (MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. i, 
caj. I, leg. 1/19, ramo 29) the name of " Rio de Sta. Luzia" is 
given to the lagoon between the " Barra de Ays," Indian 
River Inlet, and Gilbert's Bar. " S iozia" appears on " Mapa 
de la Florida y Laguna de Maimi done se ha de hacer un 
fuerte " (MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 145, caj. 7, 
leg. 7. Undated, 1595-1600?), south of "Ays" lagoon, and 
is probably intended for S. Iozia, /. e., Santa Lucia. Guil- 
laume Blaeu, " Insulae Americanae in Oceano Septentrionalis 
cum Terris adiacentibus " (in Le Theatre dv Monde oii Novvel 



43^ The Spanish Settlements 

Atlas, Mis en lumiere par Gvillavme & lean Blaev. Segonde 
Partie. A Amsterdam Chez lean Blaev. 1644. Amerique, 
pp. 5, 6) has a " p'^ S. Luzia" which reoccurs in the majority 
of the Dutch, French, and Spanish maps. The latest of these 
is Mentelle et Chanlaire, " Carte de la Floride et de la 
Georgie, " in Atlas Universelle de Giographie Physique et 
Politique^ Paris, An six de la Republique [1798]. The 
name was probably applied to Cape Malabar. John Senex, 
"A New Map of the English Empire in America," etc., 17 19 
(in A New General Atlas . . . London, 17 19), places 
" S. Lucia" at the southern extremity of the peninsula. 
Covens et Mortier, "Archipelague du Mexique ou sont les 
Isles de Cuba," etc. {^ca. 1757?), has " S. Lucia" on the west 
coast. Nicolas Bellin, " Carte reduite des Costes de la 
Louisiane et de la Floride," 1764, has "R S'^ Lucie" in an 
approximately correct position. Fernando Martinez, " De- 
scripcion Geographica de la parte que los Espanoles poseen 
actualmente en el continente de la Florida," 1765 (Brit. Mus. 
Add. MSS. i7,648A, and in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., be- 
tween pp. xliii., xliv.) has "Rio S''' Lucia." Pownall's "A 
New Map of North America with the West India Islands 
. . ." 1783. George Frederic Lotter, "A New and Cor- 
rect Map of North America with the West India Islands," 
1784, and Laurie and Whittle, " West Indies," 1794, all have 
"St. Lucia" as a river. 

APPENDIX T 

CALOOSA 

For the early accounts of the Caloosas and their country 
see: " Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la Florida " 
por Hernando de Escalante Fontanedo. Col. Doc. 
Inedit. Indias, tomo v., pp. 532, 535, 538, 539, in which a list 
of the names of the Caloosa villages is given. Ternaux-Com- 
pans's translation in Recueil.de Pihes siir la Floride (Paris, 
1841, p. 13) is inaccurate, and Barnard Shipp's English trans- 
lation in his Hernando de Soto arid Florida (Philadelphia, 1881), 



Appendix T 437 

which is apparently based on that of Ternaux-Compans, is 
incomplete, see p. 584, where he omits an entire sentence, 
which he supplies in a note with the Ternaux-Compans render- 
ing added. Le Moyne in De Bry's Brevis Narratio^ Franco- 
forti ad Moenum, 1591, p. 17. Histoire Notable., Basanier, 
Paris, 1586, pp. 72-74; English translation in Ilakluyi, Edin- 
burgh, 1889, vol. ii., pp. 481-483. Geografta de las Indias ^ox 
Juan Lopez de Velasco, 1571-1574, Madrid, 1894, p. 164, 
Barrientos, " Vida y Hechos, " in Dos Antiguas Relaciones de 
la Florida., Genaro Garcia, Mexico, 1902, pp. 87-95. Meras, 
" Jornadas " in Ruidiaz, La Florida., tomo i., pp. 149-168. 
Herrera in his " Descripcion de las Indias " (^Decadas, 
Madrid, 1730, cap. viii., tomo i., p. 15), refers only to Carlos 
Bay. 

The recent history is given in: History of Florida, by Wil- 
liam Roberts, London, 1763, p. 17. A concise Natural History 
of East and West Florida., by Captain Bernard Romans, New 
York, 1775, vol. i., pp. 289, 290, 291. Appendix, p. Ixxvi. 
et seq. Captain Romans's history, of which only the first vol- 
ume was ever published, is the source from which most subse- 
quent writers have derived their information, jf^ournal of 
Andrew Fllicott, Philadelphia, 1814, pp. 246, 247. Forbes's 
Florida, New York, 1821, pp. 100, 108. Observations upon the 
Floridas, by Charles Vignoles, New York, 1823, pp. 53, 81. 
John Lee Williams's Florida, New York, 1837, pp. 25, 32, t,6. 
Daniel G. Brinton's Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, Phila- 
delphia, 1859, pp. 112, 113. A Migration Legend of the Creek 
Lndians, by Albert S, Gatschet, Philadelphia, 1884, vol. i., p. 
13. " Indian Linguistic Families" by J. W. Powell, yth Ann. 
Rep. Bu. Ethn., 1 885-1 886, p. 123. 

Caloosa is shown in the following maps; John With's map, 
1585, in the Century Magazine, vol. xxv., pp. 66, 67. The 
name "Catos, " probably intended for "Calos, " appears on the 
southern end of the peninsula. Le Moyne's map in De Bry, 
1591, previously cited. Guillaume de I'lsle, "Carte de la 
Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi " (1718?) shows " Les 
Carlos Antropophages " correctly located. John Senex, "A 
Map of Louisiana and the River Mississipi " (in A New 



438 The Spanish Settlements 

General Atlas, etc., London, 1719), is probably copied from 
De risle and shows "The Carlos Man-eaters." Matthaeus 
Seutter, " Mappa Geographica Regionem Mexicanam et 
Floridam Terrasque adjacentes ut et Anteriores x^mericse In- 
sulas," etc., 1731-1760. Johann Baptista Homann, "Am- 
plissima regionis Mississipi seu Provinciae Ludovicianae," 
etc. (1763), and his " Regni Mexicani seu Novae Hispanise 
Tabula" (1763, va. Atlas Geographicus Major, Norim- 
bergas, 1763, Nos. 139 and 147), both show " Les Carlos " in 
about the correct location. Fernando Martinez, " Descrip- 
cion geographica de la parte que los Espanoles poseen actual- 
mente en el continente de la Florida" (1765, Brit. Mus. 
Add. MSB. i7,648A, and in Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., be- 
tween pp. xliii., xliv). Jn°. Cary, " The West Indies," 1783, 
and Joseph Purcell, "A Map of the States of Virginia, . . . 
comprehending the Spanish Provinces of East and West 
Florida," 1792, both show "Carlos" island. See also Spanish 
Settlements, 1513-1561, p. 441, Appendix G, "The Bay of 
Juan Ponce." 

APPENDIX U 

SAN FELIPE 

Barrientos in Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, 
p. 179) says San Felipe was " En Vna ysla de quatro leguas 
Estando de la baRa Vna legua. " Velasco in his 
Geograf/a de las I/idias, i^y 1-1^^4, p. 161, says San Felipe 
was the island settled by the French five years before and 
abandoned by them when they ' learned of the victory of 
Aviles. But there was no French settlement at Santa Elena 
prior or subsequent to that of Charlesfort in 1562, to which it 
is possible that he refers. It is noticeable that Pardo, who 
went to Cufitatchiqui on the Savannah twice, once across coun- 
try and once along the coast, mentions no large river between 
it and San Felipe from where he started (see pp. 275, 294, 445, 
in this volume). Aviles, in his letter to Philip II. of October 
^5» 15^5) written before he had visited the locality (see p. 401 



Appendix U 439 

in this volume), placed Santa Elena fifty leagues from St. 
Augustine, "and in a distance of three leagues it has three 
ports and rivers, and the largest has six fathoms of water and 
the other four admirable harbours; and that which we call 
Santa Elena, which is the third where the French are, is very- 
bad, and all three can be navigated inside from one to the 
other." 

In the " Relacion de la Costa de la Florida" of Joan de 
Herrera of 1576, forming part of the Derrotero hecho For el 
ynsigne y sabido piloto ysidro de la puebla . . . 1578 
(Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, MSS. 4541, fol. 87), the 
writer, after giving the latitudes of St. Augustine in 29°, of 
San Mateo in 30°, of Santa Elena in 32°, and of Guale, 
"which is between San Mateo and Santa Elena," in 32° 20', 
"according to the Reportorio \sic\ of Chabes, " continues 
"from Santa Elena to the north-east is the Point of Santa 
Elena itself, and it is an island in itself, for the sea washes 
between it and the land. . . . To the north-east of the 
cape of Santa Elena is a very good river . . . and these 
shoals extend fully three leagues from the land into the sea. 
It has three or four entrances. ... In the midst 
[medio] of the bay you will find within it an island in the 
middle [en niitad] of the river which is like a galley. 
To reach the port you must hug the east shore; there is a shoal 
there, along which the waves break, for in the morning by the 
full tide (?) and by the roar of the water the current tells you 
where the bottom lies until you see the houses. To the north- 
east of the Cape of Santa Elena is another river, which has a 
good bar, where is the first Indian village . . . and there 
is a beech beyond, the which is a sweet water river. And the 
land is more than fifteen leagues, more than any of these 
rivers. And between one river and the other there are many 
shoals. . . . This river of sweet water, which is in 32° 20' 
largos for the River Jordan the coast runs east north-east. 
From here to the River Jordan is the same east 
north-east coast. . . . Four leagues beyond the River 
Jordan is a sand bar which projects into the sea (sale a la 
mar) nine leagues, all white water." 



440 The Spanish Settlements 

Mr. Herbert C. Graves, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 
to whom Herrera's description was submitted for his opinion, 
identifies the Punta de Santa Elena with Hilton Head, in view 
of J. G. Kohl, "A History of the Discovery of the Coast of 
North America," vol. i., pp. 309, 399 {Collecttofi of the Maine 
Historical Society, 2nd series), the Ribero map of 1529, facing 
p. 299, Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., pp. 256, 
260, and Le Moyne's map on p. 274. Mr. O. H. Tittmann, 
Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, through 
whose kindly assistance the report of Mr. Graves was ob- 
tained, adds that " Herrera's description and sailing direc- 
tions answer well to Port Royal and its entrance, and Hilton 
Head then follows of necessity as Cape St, Helena." 

It appears highly probable that the Point of Santa Elena 
was Hilton Head, and that San Felipe was therefore in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Charlesfort. As bearing on this 
conclusion, Mr. Graves calls attention in his report to the 
similarity of Herrera's galley-shaped island to that of the 
largest of the islands shown on Le Moyne's map at Portus 
Regalis, although it should not be forgotten that Le Moyne 
did not himself visit this region. The Fort of San Felipe may 
have been on St. Phillip's Island or perhaps on Paris Island. 

APPENDIX V 

TEG EST A 

After describing the island of Metacumbe at the northern 
extremity of the Martyr Islands (the Florida Keys) Velasco 
writes {Geografia de las Indias, 1571-1574, Madrid, 1894, p. 
166): "En la mesma punta de Tequesta, entra en la mar un 
rio dulce, que viene de la tierra adentro y a) parecer corre del 
oeste al leste . . . junto a el, de la parte del. norte, esta 
el pueblo de indios que se dice Tequesta, de donde se dice asi 
la punta; poblose aqui un pueblo de Espanoles ano de 67, que 
despues se despoblo ano de 70. . . . La Costa va cor- 
riendo desde Tequesta al norte, declinando al norueste hasta 
ponerse en 27 grados: desde la dicha punta hasta rio Dulce 



Appendix V 44^ 

que seran seis leguas, hay tres islas al lungo de la costa norte 
sur, que tendran todas tres de largo las dichas seis leguas." 
Fontanedo (" Memoria," Col. Doc. Inedit Indias, tomo v., 
p. 534) writing in 1575 {Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am.., vol. ii., p. 
291, note i), says: " Voy a lo que trataba del cabo de las islas- 
de los Martires hacia el Norte. Fenecen estas islas junto a 
un lugar de indios, que han por nombre Teguesta, que esta a. 
un lado de un rio que entra hacia la tierra dentro; este rio 
corre hasta quince leguas, y sale a otra laguna, que dicen 
algunos indios que la han andado mas que yo, que es un brazo 
de la laguna de Mayaimi." 

Romans in his A concise Natural History of East and West 
Florida (New York, 1775, vol. i., pp. 296 and 299) knows 
nothing of the name Tegesta, and ridicules De Brahm's use of 
the name in his Atlantic Pilot (London, 1772). Forbes, in his 
Florida (New York, 182 1, p. 103), applies the name Tegesta 
to the southern extremity of the peninsula. Brinton in his 
Notes on the Floridian Peninsula (Philadelphia, 1859, p. 112) 
places the province of Tegesta at the southern extremity of 
the peninsula, and (p. 116) speaks of it as a part of the pro- 
vince of "Ais," in which he is followed by Albert S. Gatschet 
in his Migration Legend of the Creek Itidians (Philadelphia, 
1884, vol. i., p. 15), who places the village of Tequesta "on 
a river coming from Lake Mayaimi." J. W. Powell in his 
"Indian Linguistic Families" {jth Ann. Rep. Bu. Ethn., p. 
123) is even less definite. 

It is to be noted that both the descriptions of Fontanedo 
and Velasco mention a point of land with three islands at the 
head of the Florida Keys and a river of sweet water flowing 
east and west from an arm of Lake Miami. They point with 
much probability to Biscayne Bay and Miami River, the large 
river of sweet water flowing east and west in that neighbour- 
hood, and which finds its source in a sweet water lagoon in the 
interior. Snake River, to the north of it, does not flow in the 
same direction, although it is also a sweet-water river. 

In the maps the name "Province of Tegesta" has been 
applied at different times to the southern extremity of the 
peninsula, to its northern part, and to the entire peninsula. 



442 The Spanish Settlements 

The most interesting and typical of these maps are: Jean de 
Laet, " Florida et Regiones Vicinae," 1640, in his L Histoire dv 
Nouveau Monde, Leyde, 1640, between pp. 102, 103. loannes 
Jansson, "America Septentrionalis, " in his Nuevo Atlas, 
Amsterdam, 1653, vol. ii. Sanson d'Abbeville, " Le Nouveau 
Mexique et la Floride," 1679. Nicolaus Visscher, " Insulae 
Americange in Oceano Septentrionali," etc. (1680?), in his 
Atlas Minor, Amst. All four of these maps give " Tegesta 
Provincia." Edward Wells, "A New Map of North America, " 
etc. (in his A Ne7v Sett of Maps both of Antient and Present 
Geography, Oxford, 1701), shows the " Peninsula of Tegesta. *' 
Matthieu Albert Lotter, " Carte Nouvelle de I'Amerique 
Angloise, " etc., 1720 (?) shows " Tegeste " applied to part of 
the peninsula. Matthaeus Seutter, " NovusOrbis, " etc., 1725- 
1760. Renier & Ottens, " Insula Americanse," etc., 1730 (?) 
Matthaeus Seutter, " Mappa Geographica Regionem Mexi- 
canam et Floridam, " etc., 1 731-1760. All three of these 
maps show "Tegesta Prov." Covens et Mortier, "Archi- 
pelague du Mexique ou sont les Isles de Cuba," etc., ca. 1757, 
shows "Tegeste Province." Johann Baptista Homann, 
" Totius Americce Septentrionalis et Meridionalis, " etc., 1765, 
shows the name " Tegesta Provincia," applied to the southern 
end of the peninsula. Johann Baptista Homann, " Regni 
Mexicani seu Novae Hispaniae," etc., 1763, shows "Tegesta 
Prov." Fernando Martinez, " Descripcion Geographica de 
la parte que los Espanoles poseen actualmente en el continente 
de la Florida," 1765 (Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 17,468, and in 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i.), has the legend: " Tequesta 
que oy se dicen Tndios Costas." John Grear de Brahm, 
" The Ancient Tegesta, now Promontory of East Florida," in 
his The American Pilot, London, 1772. De Brahm has been 
copied by the following maps, all of which represent Tegesta 
across the southern end of the Peninsula: Thos. Jefferys, 
" The Peninsula and Gulf of Florida or Channel of Bahama 
with the Bahama Islands," 1775. Bernard Romans, "A 
General Map of the Southern British Colonies in America," 
1776. John Andrews, "A Map of the British Colonies in North 
America," 1779. J"°. Cary, " The West Indies," 1783. 



Appendix W 443 

APPENDIX W 

DATE OF PARDO'S FIRST EXPEDITION 

There is a conflict between the dates given in the Relation of 
Martinez and that of Pardo, for the inception of the various 
expeditions of the latter. Pardo in his undated report says he 
was sent to Santa Elena, " donde desde a pocos dias que ay 
estabamos llego el Adelantado pero Menendez de Aviles 
. y . . . me mando que yo entrase el dia de Santo 
Andres, primo venidero, la tierra adentro . . . y ansi, 
benido el dia de Santo Andres, yo me parti " (" Relacion de 
la entrada," Ruidiaz, La Florida^ tomo ii., p. 466). He then 
proceeds with the report of this expedition or entrada^ which 
ends with the words: " Esto es lo de la primera Jornada " (p. 
469). These are immediately followed by the words: " Llego 
el Adelantado Pero Menendez de Aviles el ano 1566 a la 
cibdad de Santa Elena, a donde me mando yo tornase a pro- 
seguir la Jornada . . . y asi yo me parti el primer dia de 
Setiembre" (p. 469). Martinez in his Relation dated July 11, 
1567, says that: " De la civdad de Santa Elena salio el Capitan 
Juan Pardo el primer dia de Nobienbre ano de 1566, para 
entrar la tierra dentro a descubrilla y conquistalla dende aqui 
hasta Mexico" (Ruidiaz, La Florida^ tomo ii., p. 477). Pardo 
went as far as " Juada, " where, finding his progress impeded 
by snow upon the mountains, he returned to San Felipe, leav- 
ing his sergeant at Juada. The sergeant subsequently made 
a reconnoissance as far as Chiaha, "donde aguardo al dicho 
Capitan que ha de partir deste fuerte mediado Agosto " (p. 
479) /. e., during August, 1567. Vandera in the opening of 
his narrative refers indefinitely to expeditions in 1566 and 
1567 (see the copy given by Buckingham Smith, Col. Doc. 
Flo.., tomo i., p. 15, which begins with these dates, given only 
in the title by Ruidiaz), and neither he nor Barcia gives dates 
nor distinguishes the entradas. 

It thus appears from the Pardo Relation that Aviles was 
twice at Santa Elena in 1566 and that Pardo's second entrada 
was made in September subsequent to Aviles's second visit. 
But Aviles, in fact, made but one visit to Santa Elena during 



444 The Spanish Settlements 

the year 1566, leaving San Mateo April ist, and returning May 
15th, or in August, according to Meras. He returned a second 
time in 1567, sailing from there for Spain on the i8th of May. 
It is therefore altogether probable that the date 1566 in Pardo's 
Relation is a misprint or error of the copyist for 1567, in which 
latter case all of Pardo's statements will substantially conform 
with the dates given by Martinez and by Vandera. Thus we 
will have two entradas, the first November i, 1566, the date 
given by Martinez, and subsequent to Aviles's first visit ac- 
cording to Pardo, and a second entrada on the ist of Septem- 
ber, 1567, the year given by Martinez and Vandera, the month 
that of Pardo in approximate agreement with Martinez's state- 
ment that an entrada was to be made in August of 1567, and 
also subsequent to the second visit of Aviles according to 
Pardo. There is also the mistake of a year in the printed 
title of the Pardo Relation, 1565 being given for 1566. 

APPENDIX X 

pardo's first expedition 

Pardo's Rel. Vandera in Buck. Vandera in Ruidiaz, 

Ruidiaz, La Flor- Smith, Col. Doc. La Florida, tomo 

ida, tomo ii., pp. Flo.., pp. 15-17. ii., pp. 481-486. 

465-473- 

Uscamacu 

Ahoya 

Vandera (Ruidiaz, tomo ii., p. 481) describes it as an island. 
In " Mapa de la Florida y Laguna de Maimi donde se ha de 
hacer un fuerte " (MS. Undated, 1595-1600? Arch. Gen de 
Indias, Seville, est. 145, caj. 7, leg. 7), it is shown as an island 
directly south of Santa Elena. Albert S. Gatschet in his Mi- 
gration Legend of the Creek Lndians (vol. i., p. 62) derives the 
name from a Creek word signifying " two going," and says it 
was a Creek village along the Savannah River. This is in- 
correct, as Pardo had not yet reached the Savannah. Ahoya 
is probably only another form of " Hoya," on page 352 of this 
volume. The prefix " a " in names of persons and places was 



Appendix X 445 

frequently dropped by the Spaniards (see Maya and Amaya, 
p. 225, note 2, in this volume). 

Pardo's Rel. Vandera in Buck. Vandera in Ruidiaz, 

Ruidiaz, La Flori- Smith, Col. Doc. La Florida., tomo 

da^ tomo ii., pp. Flo.^ pp. 15-17. ii., pp 481-486. 

465-473 

Ahoyabe 

Cofao, Cozao Cozao 

J. G. Shea in a note to his " Pardo's Exploration of South 
Carolina and Georgia in 1566-67 " {LListorical Magazine, Au- 
gust, i860, p. 231) suggests the Coosawatchee(?) 

Enfrenado 

(Guiomae?) Guiomaer Guiomaez 

Vandera (p. 482) places it on a large river. Both Vandera 

{ibid.) and Pardo (p. 469) say forty leagues from Santa Elena, 

Canos Cofetaf que j Canos, Canosi, 

( Cofetazque 
Pardo (p. 466) says: " Tyene un rio cavdal." Vandera 
(p. 482) describes it as " Canos, que los indios llaman Canosi, 
y por otro nombre Cofetazque. , . . Hay hasta Sancta 
Elena cinquenta leguas y hasta la mar como veinte leguas; 
puedese ir hasta el por el rio dicho, cursando la tierra, y por 
mucho mas adelante por el mismo rio." James Mooney in 
his " Myths of the Cherokee" (/p Ann. Rep. Bu. Ft/in., pt. 
i., p. 28) and Shea (ibid., p. 231) identify Canos with De Soto's 
Cufitatchiqui. Gatschet in his Migration Legend of the Creek 
Lndians (vol. i., p. 20) with the Cannouchee River at the head 
of which lived the Yuchees. He derives Canosi from the 
Creek ikano'dshi signifying, " graves are there " {ibid., p. 63). 
Tagaya Jagaya Tagaya 
Tagaya el Chico 

Gueza 



Arauchi, Aracuchi. Aracuchi. 

Ysa Issa- (4) Isa ' 

' The numbers indicate the order in which these names are given by 
Vandera, who describes them in the order in which they were visited on the 
second entrada, i. e., from south to north. 



44^ The Spanish Settlements 

Gatschet (p. 62) derives Issa from the Creek idshu, deer, 
and locates it on the Savannah. But it is to be noted that 
neither Pardo nor Vandera states that Ysa was on the same 
river as Canos. In fact, Pardo says of Canos: " Tyene ?/« rio 
cavdal " (p. 466) and of Ysa " tiene un rio cavdal " (p. 467), 
from which it does not necessarily follow that both were on the 
same river. Had he ascended the river to Ysa he would have 
said: " Pasa el rio cavdal por ^1," as he does in the case of 
Quihanaqui, which was on the same stream as Juada, below it 
(p. 467). Shea {ibid.^ p. 230) derives the name from the 
" Chahta, " issi^ a deer, and says it is apparently identical with 
Ays, which Romans describes as on the Indian River. The 
mistake in the location is too apparent to require comment. 

Pardo's Rel. Vandera in Buck. Vandera in Ruidiaz, 

Ruidiaz, La Flori- Smith, Col. Doc. La Florida, tomo 

da, tomo ii., pp. Flo., pp. 15-17. ii., pp. 481-486. 

465-473- 

Juada (6) Joara 

This is the " Toana " of Barrientos (" Hechos " in Dos 
Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 140). Mooney identifies 
this with the Xuala of De Soto (see Spanish Settlements, 15 13- 
1561, p. 230, and note 3), which he locates in the territory of 
the Suwali Indians about the head of the Broad River in North 
Carolina (see "Xuala and Guaxule " by Cyrus Thomas and 
J, N. B. Hewitt in Science, N. S., vol. xxi, p. 863, for a dif- 
ferent location). But the distance, fifty or sixty miles from 
the nearest point on the Savannah, is excessive for a two- 
days' march. Shea (ibid., p. 231) also notes its similarity to 
De Soto's Xuala. 

Aguaquiri 

Mooney {ibid., p. 28) thinks it the "Guiaquili " of De Soto. 

Quihanaqui (3) Quinahaqui 

Pardo (p. 467) says it was a large river, and the context ap- 
pears to indicate that it was the same river which flowed by 
Juada. Vandera (p. 483), who mentions the localities in the 



Appendix X 447 

reverse order, /. e., from south to north, says it was a large river 
other than the river on which Guatary was situated, and Ysa 
lay twelve leagues to the left (/. ^., the East? See p. 450 in 
this volume). 

Pardo's Rel. Vandera in Buck. Vandera in Ruidiaz, 

Ruidiaz, La Flor- Smith, Col. Doc. La Florida, tomo 

ida, tomo ii., pp. Flo., pp. 15-17. ii., pp. 481-486. 

465-473- 

Guatari Guatari (2) Guatary 

Vandera (p. 483) says of it: " que viene a dar a Sauapa y Usi, 
donde se hace sal, junto con la mar sesenta leguas de Sancta 
Elena. Desde este Sancta Elena a este Guatari hay ochenta 
leguas, y por este mismo rio puede entrar mas de veinte, segun 
dicen, cualquier navio." Mooney {ibid., p. 28) identifies it 
with the Wateree. He says Usi is Ushery or Catawba, and 
Sauapa is Waxhaw or Sissipahaw(?) It is to be noted, however, 
that Vandera locates them in the region where the river be- 
comes salt. 

Guatariatiqui ) , „ . . , 

(Quatariaatiqui V Otariyatiqui (i) j . ^ 

of 2d Entrada) ) 

James Adair in The History of the American Lndians (Lon- 
don, 1775, p. 226) says the Cherokees call the mountain 
portion of their territory Ottare, signifying "mountainous." 
Mooney {ibid., p. 28) suggests that it may have been a frontier 
Cherokee settlement. Perhaps the Cherokee a tdri or d tali — 
"mountain," Gatschet {ibid., p. 24) places the Cherokee 
villages of the Overhill Settlements, Otari, Otali, signifying 
" up, above," north-west of the " Smoky Mountains," along 
the Great and Little Tennessee rivers and their tributaries. 

Pardo's return was by the same route, /. e., Tagaya Chiquito 
(Chico), Tagaya, Cajucos, Guiomae, and Santa Elena. George 
R. Fairbanks in his History of St. Augustine (New York, 1858, 
p. 1 01) think Pardo probably visited the up-country of Georgia, 
in the neighbourhood of Rome. Luys de Paez (Expediente 
del Sargento Pedro Luys de Paez, 1579, MS. Arch. Gen. 



448 The Spanish Settlements 

Indias, Seville, est. 51, caj. 5, leg. 16) relates that Pardo on 
his expedition into the interior constructed "three or four" 
forts named "Zuara," "Aguatira, " and "Orista. " These 
are Juada and Aguaquiri. 



APPENDIX Y 

TOCOBAGA 

Velasco in his Geografia de las Indias^ i^'/i-i^'/4^ pp. 162, 
163, gives the following description: " La bahia de Tocobaga, 
por otro nombre del Espiritu- Santo 6 de Mirueio, esta en 29 
grades y 1/2 de altura: la entrada tiene por travesia el oeste; 
tendra tres leguas de boca, y en ella tres isletas pequenas en 
que no hay cosa ninguna sino arena y pajaros; por la parte 
del norte corre la costa dentro della como dos leguas del oeste 
al leste y luego vuelve un brazo de mar de tres leguas de ancho 
derecho al norte, diez y ocho leguas la tierra adentro, hasta el 
mesmo pueblo de Tocobaga, pueblo de indios donde se acaba: 
para navegarse, se ha de arrimar siempre a la costa del este, 
por que la otra es todo bajo; en pasando el dicho brazo vuelve 
otro brazo mas ancho que el sobredicho; al es nordeste no se 
ha navegado; por esto no se sabe donde va a parar. " Fon- 
tanedo (" Memoria," Col. Doc. Inedit. Indias., tomo v., p. 537), 
writing in about 1575 {Narr. and C?'it. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 
291, note i), places " Toco-baja," in which town "esta el Rey 
casi mayor de aquella comarca, " near a river on the Avest 
Florida coast called " Guavaca-Esgui " by the Indians. The 
river is between " Abalache " and " Ogale," locations which 
he does not describe. The chief's residence " llamase Toco- 
baja Chile . . . i cabo posterior del rio, hacia la tierra 
adentro, que hay de rio mas de quarenta leguas." " Desde 
Tocovaga hasta Santa Elena, que habra de costa seiscientos 
leguas" (p. 546). It can be reached from " Saravay, que esta 
cinquenta 6 sesenta leguas la tierra adentro del rio (St. John's?) 
arriba, 6 a la provincia de Utina," and then west, " tomando 
por arriba de pueblo en pueblo, y dar consigo a la Canoga- 



Appendix Y 449 

cola, vasallos de Tocovaga, y de alii al lugar mismo de 
Tocovaga, en que esta otro rio muy grande, donde Soto 
estuvo y murio " (p. 545). Herrera in his " Descripcion de 
las Indias " {Decadas de Indias, Madrid, 1730, tomo i., cap. 
viii., p. 15) places Tocobaga thirty-three leagues to the north 
of Tampa Bay. Barcia in his Ensayo (Ano MDLXVII., 
p. 127) says, "Aviles entro per el Puerto y un Indio . 
guio al Pueblo de Tocobaga, que estaba 20 Leguas la Tierra 
adentro, sob re vn Brago de Agua salada. " William Roberts 
in his History of Florida (London, 1763, p. 16), says: "Be- 
tween Rio Pedro and the Rio Amasura are the two small 
rivers of St. Martin and Tocobogas. Between these rivers 
reside the tribe of Tocobogas." He places the Rio Ama- 
sura or Masura in latitude 28 deg. 25 min. {ibid.^ p. 16). 
The Rio Pedro is "almost S.E. from Apalache River." 
Williams's Florida (New York, 1837, pp. 31, 32) writes: 
" Helley's Keys are a range of sandy islands extending in 
front of Tocobagos, or St. Joseph's Bay. From Tocobagos 
to Tampa there is a boat channel behind these keys, but at 
some places it is very shoal at low water." Daniel G. Brinton 
in his Notes on the Floridian Peninsula (Philadelphia, 1859, p. 
118) says: " In later times the cacique dwelt in a village on 
Old Tampa Bay, twenty leagues from the main, called Toco- 
baga or Togabaga, whence the province derived its name, and 
was reputed to be the most potent in Florida. A large mound 
still seen in the vicinity marks the spot." Fairbanks in his 
History of Florida (Philadelphia, 1871, p. 139) places " Toco- 
bayo " about Cape Canaveral. Cyrus Thomas in his "The 
Indians of North America in Historic Times " (Lee, Hist, of 
North America, Philadelphia, vol. ii., p. 57) places Tocobaga 
on Old Tampa Bay. 

Velasco's description evidently refers to Tampa Bay. The 
first bay within three leagues of the mouth and eighteen leagues 
deep, extending directly north, is Old Tampa, where the village 
of Tocobaga is correctly placed, according to the independent 
observations of subsequent authorities to whom his description 
was unknown. The second wider arm, which extends east 

north-east (incorrectly punctuated in Velasco's text), is Hills- 
**. — 29. 



450 The Spanish Settlements 

borough Bay. It is to be noted that Velasco does not locate 
Tampa Bay, showing a confusion existing in his mind between 
it and Tocobaga, and that the only two other localities which 
he gives on the west coast, " Bahia de Carlos" and " la punta 
de Muspa, " are correctly located. 

" Mapa de la Florida y Laguna de Maimi donde se ha de 
hacer un fuerte" (Undated, 1595-1600? MS. Arch. Gen. de 
Indias, Seville, est. 145, caj. 7, leg. 7), shows the " b* de 
tacabaga " in about the correct position. Tocobaga is also 
shown on the following maps, which have been already re- 
ferred to in previous notes: De Laet, 1640; Sanson d' Abbe- 
ville, 1656 and 1679; Visscher, 1680, It reappears with 
Reinier & Ottens, 1730, and Jno. Gary, " West Indies," 1783, 
who gives it in approximately the correct position. The 
river of Tocobaga referred to by William Roberts appears on 
the following map, as well as elsewhere: " East Florida, from 
Surveys made since the last Peace," adapted to Dr. Stork's 
History of that country, by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to 
the King, in A Description of East-Florida, by William Stork, 
3rd edit., London, 1769. In " The Bay of Espiritu Santo, in 
East Florida," by Tho. Jefferys, facing Bartram's " Journal," 
which is published by Dr. Stork in the work just referred to, 
the north-west arm of the bay is named " Tampa Bay Accord- 
ing to the Spaniards." 



APPENDIX Z 

PARDO'S SECOND EXPEDITION 

On reference to Appendix W in this volume it will be noted 
that Vandera gives the villages between Joara (Pardo's Juada) 
and Otariatiqui (Pardo's Guatariatiqui) in the reverse order 
from that followed by Pardo. On collating this list of Van- 
dera with that in Pardo's second expedition the order will be 
found to be substantially the same in both, indicating that 
Vandera described the route followed on the second expedi- 
tion. For this reason it is necessary only to give the names 



Appendix Z 



451 



of the towns beyond Juada in the order in which they are given 
by Pardo and by Vandera. 



Pardo's Rel. 

Ruidiaz, La Flor- 
ida^ tomo ii., p. 
465. 



Juada 

Tocalques, Tocae. Tocax 

See p. 295 in this volume. 

Canche, Cauchi, 



Vandera in Buck. Vandera in Ruidiaz, 
Smith, Col. Doc. La Florida, toma 
Flo.., pp. 15-17. ii., pp. 4B1-486. 



J oar a 
Tocar 



Cauchi 



Pardo (p. 470) says it has a large river. Mooney, in " Myths 
of the Cherokee " (/p Ann. Rep. Bu. Fthn., pt, i., p. 29), sug- 
gests Nacoochee, apparently a Creek town. And see p. 296, 
note 4 in this volume. 



Tanasqui 



Tanasqui 



Pardo {ibid., p. 470) says, "It has a large river." Mooney 
{ibid., p. 29) says apparently a Creek town. 



Chihaque, Lameco 
Chi ah a 



See p. 286 note i in this volume. 



Satapo 



Solameco, Chiaha 



Chalahume 
Satapo, Tasqui. 



From Satapo Pardo returned to San Felipe at Santa Elena. 

Fourquevaux, under date of November 30, 1567 {Depeches, 
p. 305) forwarded to Charles IX. a curious account of an ex- 
pedition which probably relates to this entrada, furnished him 
by an usher of Philip II. It gives a few interesting details of 
the country, although it contains some exaggeration and ap- 
pears to be somewhat confused with the events of the first 
entrada made during the winter. It reads as follows: " The 



452 The Spanish Settlements 

captain Jehean Pardo, governor of the point of Santa Elena in 
Florida has written that he has sent thirty soldiers in a brigan- 
tine one hundred leagues up the said river of Santa Elena, and 
some of them having landed on the north side, they went 
thirty leagues over land away from the said river, and have 
found at the foot of the mountains an open town, the houses 
built of stone, and a small castle also of stone where there was- 
a tower. The inhabitants are peaceable and appear to be good 
people. They are dressed in cotton shirts and the furs of 
various beasts. They sow corn and other seed. There are 
oxen, but they are small. The land is fertile and they have 
trees bearing various fruits which are good to eat. There are 
mines of gold and silver. And they told the said soldiers that 
several days' distance farther on there was a population of 
bearded men; they were unable to learn if they were French- 
men or Spaniards, neither were they allowed to proceed 
farther; the said Indians, however, gave them food and pro- 
visions for their return to the brigantine, and thus they re- 
turned to the said fort." 

The ascent of the Savannah in boats, according to this ac- 
count, is not inconsistent with Pardo's Relation, for he may 
have followed the coast to the mouth of the Savannah River, 
visiting Ahoya on his way. The silver mines suggest the 
second entrada in which the fumes of silver were perceived 
(see p. 295 in this volume). The refusal to allow the Spaniards 
to advance may refer to their return from Chiaha on account 
of the hostile Indians farther on; and the report of the white 
settlement may have arisen from the imperfect understanding 
by the Spaniards of a reference made by the Indians to De 
Luna's settlement of a few years before. 

APPENDIX AA 

TACATACURU 

" El fuerte de San Pedro, que es en la isla de Tacatacoru." 
Disposicion de cuatro fuertes que ha de haber en la Florida y 
guarnicion que debe tener cada uno de ellos, (In Ruidiaz, La 



Appendix AA 453 

Florida, tomo ii., p. 507, Ruidiaz dates this document 1566, 
see ibid., p. 713. The date of 1569 given it in Col. Doc. Inedit, 
Indias, tomo xiii., p. 307, is probably correct). Velasco in 
his Geografia de las Indias, i^y 1-1^74, pp. 168, 169 does not 
mention the island by this name, but, describing the coast to 
the north-east, in the direction of Santa Elena, which is filled 
with islands both large and small, he says: " La primera de 
las mas senaladas es, en pasando la boca del rio de San Mateo, 
la que se llama Carabay, que es una barra muy chiquita, y asi 
no puede servir sino para chalupas; dos leguas mas adelante 
esta otra que llaman la Revuelta, con dos bocas por una isleta 
que tiene en la entrada; y mas adelante otras dos leguas estd 
la barra de Seiia, adonde solia estar el fuerte de San Pedro; es 
barra que, si aguardan marea, pueden entrar navios de docien- 
tos toneles. Mas adelante cuatro leguas, esta Bahia de Bal- 
lenas, que es una bahia muy grande y ancha; pero no tiene 
buena barra, porque es todo bajio: arriba de la tierra, un rio 
muy poderoso de agua dulce, que se llama el rio del Marques, 
esta muy poblado de indios al luengo del de una y de otra 
parte. Mas adelante de esta bahia dos leguas, esta otra barra 
pequeiia que se dice Gualequeni, adonde no pueden entrar sino 
con chalupas." And see also p. 161, where he says: "El 
fuerte de San Pedro estuvo en la barra de Sena." 

According to the " Piano de la Entrada de Gualiquini Rio 
de San Simon situado a 31° 17' de latitud Septentrional " (MS. 
Dep. de la Guerra, Madrid, Arch, de Mapas, L. M. 8a-ia-a, 
No. 43, and of which there appears to be another MS. copy 
dated May 15, 1757, in the Archives of the Indies, Seville, 
Belacidn Descriptiva de los Mapas, Pianos, (Sr* [sic] de Mexico y 
Florida existentes en el Archivo General de Indias por Pedro 
Torres Lanzas, Sevilla, 1900, tomo i.. No. 131), there can be 
little doubt that Gualiquini is Jykill Island, which is substan- 
tially in agreement with the conclusion reached by Dr. Shea 
in The Catholic Church in Colonial Days (New York, 1886, pp. 
142, 143, note I, p. 178, note i) from independent observation. 
Accordingly the island of San Pedro is Cumberland Island ; la 
barra de Sena is Cumberland Sound; La Revuelta is Nassau 
Sound, and Carabay is Fort George Inlet. 



454 The Spanish Settlements 

William B. Stevens in his History of Georgia (New York, 
1847, '^ol- ^-i P- ^35)> says: " Missoe is the Indian name, 
meaning sassafras, of the island called San Pedro by the 
Spaniards and by the English Cumberland." Fairbanks in 
his History of Florida (Philadelphia, 187 1, p. 143) identifies 
the harbour of Fernandina with Tacatacuru. This is sub- 
stantially in agreement with the above, for the entrance to the 
harbour of Fernandina is through Cumberland Sound, al- 
though it appears that he is disposed to consider Amelia 
Island as Tacatacuru. William W. Dewhurst, in his History 
of St. Augustine (New York, 1881, p. 60), and Shea in his 
"Ancient Florida" {Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 
280), identify Tacatacuru with St. Mary's River. It is to be 
noted that the name " Sena" used by Velasco for this harbour 
bears a curious resemblance to the French name " Seine," by 
which the French are said to have called the Tacatacuru River 
{La Reprise de la Floride, p. 47). The Spanish form of 
" Seine "is " Sequena." Gatschet says the name Tacatacuru 
contains the Timucuanan word taca, fire, probably in a re- 
doubled form. " The Timucua Language " in Proceedings of 
the American Philosophical Society, vol. xviii., p. 502. 

APPENDIX BB 

THE SPANISH ACCOUNT OF GOURGUES's ATTACK ON SAN MATEO 

A careful collation of the incomplete manuscript letter of 
Las Alas entitled: "estevan de la sala en san agustin cinco de 
mayo mil quinientos sesenta y nueve cuenta como se perdio 
el fuerte de sant mateo " (Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, est. 
2, caj. 5, leg. 1/9) with Gourgues's Relation in La Reprise de 
la Floride (Larroque, Paris, Bordeaux, 1867) raises so strong a 
presumption that we have here part of the original Spanish 
version of the French attack upon San Mateo, that the events 
which it relates have been incorporated into the narrative in 
the text in the belief that the date of 1569 appended to the 
document is a clerical error. The letter appears from its 
context as well as from its title to have been written from St. 



Appendix BB 455 

Augustine. So much of it as is essential to a comparison of 
the two accounts is as follows: "Good Friday at three o'clock 
in the afternoon five ships appeared upon the bar three of 
which were of reasonable size and the other two smaller and 
they were about a league from the fort a gun was fired to 
inform them that there were people and a harbour here think- 
ing they were Spanish ships and if they were enemies that they 
might also know we were here, hearing the gun . . . they 
took the direction of San Mateo . . . the first Sunday after 
Easter [el domingo de pasquilla] in the morning the sergeant 
of San Mateo arrived at this fort with thirty persons who had 
been with thirty men in one of two houses which had been 
built at the bar of San Mateo and said that the Saturday be- 
fore at midday he had seen from this house where he was 
which is on this side of the river of San Mateo towards this 
fort many Indians approach and another band of persons 
armed with guns and corselets and arquebuses and four field 
banners and their trumpets and drums and at once they closed 
in on the house which is on the other side of the Island of 
Alimacani in which there were thirty other soldiers who became 
so confused that they abandoned the house and he who could 
fly fled but only a few for of all of them only five escaped the 
sergeant continued firing from this house to where they were 
with two guns which he had in it until the ammunition gave 
out and perceiving that succour could not reach him speedily 
from San Mateo because the tide would not permit of it and 
the weather which was very fierce from the north east he spiked 
the guns and came as I have said to this fort." 

The fragment of the letter contains no hint as to the nation- 
ality of the ships, and only from its title do we know that the 
missing portion, which probably bore the date and the signa- 
ture of the writer, relates the fall of Fort San Mateo. The 
result of a comparison of the two accounts is as follows: 
Gourgues states that he had three vessels {La Reprise de la 
Floride, p. 29). Las Alas mentions five. This difference in 
numbers is not material, since Gourgues had captured Spanish 
vessels during his voyage (Alava to Alba, June 25, 1568, MS. 
Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 15 11 [56], fol. 2; Alava to Philip II., 



45^ The Spanish Settlements 

June 28, 1568, ibid., [59]). Eight days prior to his capture 
of the blockhouses (Z^ Reprise, pp. 38, 40, 44, 46, 47, 49, 
50) Gourgues, who was sailing in a northerly direction, passed 
a Spanish fort which saluted him with two guns, to which he 
replied (jibid., p. 38). Las Alas relates that on Good Friday, 
nine days before the capture of the blockhouses according to 
his own dates, he fired a gun to signal five ships, which were 
discovered off St. Augustine. Thereupon Gourgues sails away 
until out of sight of land, but returns at night and lands 
within fifteen leagues of the fort. Las Alas says the ships 
took the direction of Fort San Mateo. 

Gourgues says it rained hard the morning of the attack and 
that it blew a north-east wind the previous day {ibid., pp. 49, 
50). Las Alas says that on the day of the attack there was a 
strong north-east wind. Gourgues attacked first the block- 
house on the left (north) bank of the St. John's with a force 
of Indians and of armed men. Las Alas says the same. 
Gourgues attacked the first blockhouse after ten o'clock in the 
morning {ibid., p. 52). Las Alas says at midday. Gourgues 
says the south fort incommoded the French attack on the 
north fort by firing cannon at them {ibid., p. 54). Las Alas 
says the south fort fired at the party attacking the north fort 
until its ammunition was expended. According to Gourgues 
the two forts were captured on " the eve of Quasimodo," /. e., 
the Saturday preceding the first Sunday after Easter. Las 
Alas says the same. Gourgues says there were sixty Spaniards 
in the south fort (p. 54), and does not mention the number in 
the first fort. Las Alas says there were sixty men in both forts. 

The coincidences are remarkable. The salute on first seeing 
the ships, the direction taken by the ships after being sighted, 
the direction from which comes the attack on the first block- 
house, the character of the attacking force, the weather, the 
fort first captured, the defence made by the second fort, the 
locality, and finally the ecclesiastical date. Against the proba- 
bility, raised by this similarity in the two accounts, that they are 
both describing the same event, is to be set the remote possi- 
bility of an event's repeating itself for two years in succession 
with all of these characteristics in common and occurring in 



Appendix CC 457 

the same order. The mistake of one figure in the date of the 
title is not an unusual circumstance, instances of such errors 
having been noticed in the course of this volume, particularly 
as the title in which it occurs is in the nature of a caption 
written in by a clerk. 

While this volume was going through the press. Professor 
William R. Shepherd has, in a recent review, assumed the 
same position as the author in respect to the authenticity of 
the Gourgues incident, in view " of the evidence presented by 
the correspondence of Menendez de Aviles published in the 
second volume of Ruidiaz y Caravia's La Florida, by the state- 
ments of Barrientos in his Vida y Hechos de Pero Menendez de 
Auiles, and by other original authorities recently discovered." 
{Political Science Quarterly, vol. xx., p. 331, June, 1905.) 

APPENDIX CC 

THE SECOND VOYAGE OF AVILES TO FLORIDA 

A period of sixteen months intervenes between Aviles' s let- 
ter of May 12, 1568, from Santander and his next letter from 
Spain, dated at Seville, September 22, 1569 (Ruidiaz, La 
Florida, tomo ii., p. 180). During this interval he appears to 
have been at Havana in April (?) of 1569 according to his 
letter of September 22, 1569, above cited, in which he says: 
"y aviendome V. M. mandado por una su Real Cedula, hecha 
por Febrero de este presente afio, recibida en la Habana por 
este mes de Abril pasado, en que me manda con la armada de 
mi cargo aconpane la flota de Nueva Espana hasta la meter en 
Sanlucar de Barrameda en salvamiento, . . . y que vini- 
endo la dicha flota sola, quedando yo en las Indias " {ibid., 
tomo ii., pp. 182, 183). Fourquevaux observes that Aviles 
was expected at the Azores about June, 1568 (Letter of May 
21, 1568, De'peches, p. 360). Gabriel de Cayas wrote Alava 
that Aviles had sailed from Laredo August 12 to punish pi- 
rates (Sept. 4, 1568, Arch. Nat., Paris, K, 1511 [81]). Gar- 
cilaso {La Florida del Lnca, Madrid, 1723, lib. vi., cap. xxii., 
p. 268), Pulgar {Historia general de la Florida, Biblioteca Na- 



458 The Spanish Settlements 

clonal, Madrid, MSB. 2999, fol. 173), and Barcia {Ensayo, Ano 
MDLXX., p. 141) insist upon three voyages of Aviles to Flor- 
ida, although Barcia attributes a wrong date to this voyage, as 
stated in note i, p. 342, in this volume. The date of Aviles's 
return to Spain was prior to that of his letter of September 22, 

1569, above referred to. He remained in Spain until after Janu- 
ary 4, 1570. (See letters dated Escalona, November 12, 1569, 
Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo ii., p. 184; Seville, November 20th, 
ibid., p. 185; Seville, November 24th, ibid., p. 189; Seville, 
November 27th, ibid., p. 191; Seville, Dec. 4th, /^/^., p. 193; 
Cadiz, December 31st, ibid., p. 196, and Cadiz, January 4, 

1570, ibid., p. 201). It follows that Shea's statement that 
Aviles returned to Spain after hearing of Segura's landing, 
September 11, 1570, at Axacan, is incorrect. 

It is true that a period of eleven months intervenes between 
Aviles's letter of January 4, 1570, and his next letter dated 
at Seville, December 3, 1570 {ibid., tomo ii., p. 203). But 
during this interval Aviles appears to have been at sea protect- 
ing the treasure fleets on their voyage between the Canaries 
and Spain from Pie de Palo and other pirates {ibid., tomo ii., 
p. 205, of this same letter). Subsequent to December 3, 1570, 
he remained in Spain until he sailed for Florida, May 17, 157 1. 
(See his letters dated San Lucar de Barrameda [Dec.?], 1570, 
ibid., p. 213; Seville, January 23, 15 71, ibid., p. 220; Seville, 
March 12th, ibid., p. 221; San Lucar de Barrameda, May 
15th, ibid., p. 222; Sanflanejos, May 15th, ibid., p. 224; and 
San Lucar, May 16, 1571, ibid., p. 226). 

APPENDIX DD 

AXACAN 

The first visit of the Spaniards to Axacan was that of the 
Dominican missionaries in 1559-1560, who are said by Sac- 
chini {Hist. Soc. yesu. Pars tertia, Romae, 1650, p. 323) to have 
taken the Indian Don Luis from there eleven years prior to 
1570. Aviles refers to Don Luis as being already in Mexico 
in his letter to the King of October 15, 1565 (Ruidiaz, La 



Appendix DD 459 

Florida, tomo ii., p. 94), and it seems probable that from him 
the existence of the Bay of Santa Maria of Axacan (Xacan, 
Jacan, lacan, Axaca, Axacam) was learned. Aviles in the 
letter above referred to says of the Bay of "Santa Maria" 
" que esta an treynta y siete grados, ciento y treynta leguas 
mas adelante de Santa Elena " (p. 94) ; but in his letter of 
December 25, 1565 {ibid., p. 131), he places it one hundred 
leagues to the north of Santa Elena, and elsewhere in the same 
letter (p. 134) fifty leagues by land from St. Augustine and San 
Mateo, which shows how indefinite his information was. 

There can be little doubt as to its identity with Chesapeake 
Bay. Velasco in his Geografia de las Indias, ijyi-i^y4 (p. 
172) says: " Cabo de Santiago: [esta] al norte del cabo de 
Arenas [the Cabo de Arenas was in 37° 30'], cerca del. Bahia 
de San Cristobal; mas al norte. Bahia de Santa Maria: mas 
al norte. Rio de San Anton: en 42 grados y 1/2 como 
ochenta leguas al norte del cabo de las Arenas." The Chesa- 
peake was visited in 1588 by Vincente Gonzales, for he entered 
a bay where the Indians told him there was an English settle- 
ment towards the north on a river flowing into it, but Gonzales 
does not give the name of the bay. (" Relacion que did el 
Capitan Vizente Gonzales," 1588, MS. Direc. de Hidrog., 
Madrid, Col. Navarrete, tomo xiv., Doc. No. 54, fol. 8-) Juan 
Menendez Marques in his " Relacion escrita en el fuerte de 
San Agustin . . . al P. Comisario General de Indias Ft. 
Miguel Avengogar," June 7, 1606 (Ruidiaz, tomo ii., p. 498) 
refers to this expedition of 1588 as being to the Bay of Jacan. 
"Y aviendo por el ano de 88 ydo al descubrimiento de la 
baya de la Madre de Dios del Jacan, y tomar lengua de la 
poblacion del yngles, juntamente con el Capitan Vincente 
Gonzales," etc. In 1609 Ecija, Piloto Mayor, was ordered to 
reconnoitre the coast " hasta allegar a la Altura de 37 grados 
y medio donde se sospecha estan poblados los primeros yngleses 
en el sitio que ellos llaman (la Virginia) ' o cortuan y en nuestra 
lengua se llama la vaya del lacan." (Orden del Gobernador 
D. Pedro de Ibarra a el Capitan Francisco Fernandez de Ecija 
para reconocer las costas del norte de aquella Provincia, 1609, 
' Bracketed in the original MS. 



46o The Spanish Settlements 

MS. Arch. Gen. de Indias, Seville, Patronato, est. 2, caj. 5, 
leg. 3/16, p. 2.) 

In the * ' Report of the voyage to Virginia made in behalf of 
Don Diego de Molino, Marco Antonio Perez and Francisco 
Lembri," enclosed in a letter of the Duke of Lerma of No- 
vember 13, 1611, there is mention of "the point of Virginia 
. at 37° and 10 minuits N. latitude . . . this afore- 
said Bay of Virginia (which is called bay of the Xacan),"' 
(Translation in Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States^ 
Boston and New York, 1890, vol. i., pp. 514, 515), and (on p, 
518) " Xacan, since that is the name of Virginia." In the letter 
of Diego de Molino (to Alonso de Velasco?) of May 28, 1613, 
he says of the region visited: " This country lies in the midst 
of thirty-seven degrees and a third, in which lies also the bay 
which they ^3,11 Santa Maria " (Translation in Alexander 
Brown, Genesis of the United States, vol. ii., p. 650). Fran- 
cisco Sacchini, in his Historice Societatis J^esu, Pars tertia 
(Romae, 1650, p. 323), says: " Est Axaca Floridse Prouincia 
perampla, ab aequatore in Boream erecta triginta septem gradi- 
bus, ab Sancta Elena leucis centum septuaginta disiuncta." 
Barcia in his Ensayo (Madrid, 1723, Ano MDLXVI., p. 119) 
says: " Baia de Santa Maria, que esta en 37 Grados," and 
(Ano MDLXIII., p. 148) "en 37 Grados y medio." Alegre 
in his Historia de la Compafiia de J^esus en Nueva Espaiia 
(Mexico, 1842, tomo i., p. 26), says Father Segura and his 
companions " Uegaron a la provincia de Axacan, que hoy 
hace parte de la nueva Georgia y la Virginia, a los 1 1 
de setiembre, y dieron fondo en el mismo puerto de Santa 
Maria (hoy S. George), patria del cacique D. Luis." 

Fairbanks in his History of St. Augustine (New York, 1858, 
pp. 100-102) and in his History of Florida (Philadelphia, 187 1, 
p. 157) and Shea in his The Catholic Church in Colofiial Days 
(New York, 1886, p. 147), in his " Ancient Florida" {Narr. 
and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. ii., p. 282) and elsewhere in various 
essays on the Segura mission, both identify the Bay of Santa 
Maria and Axacan with the Chesapeake. J. G. Kohl in his 
"A History of the Discovery of the East Coast of North 
' Bracketed in Alexander Brown's translation. 



Appendix EE 461 

America," Portland, 1869, vol. i., pp. 309, 399-401 {Collections 
of the Maine Historical Society^ 2nd series) identifies the Baya 
de Santa Maria with Chesapeake Bay. Justin Winsor, in 
Narr. and Crit. Hist. Am., vol. iii., p. 167, appears to have 
some doubts as to the identity, while he admits "that there 
seem to have been visits of the Spaniards to the Chesapeake 
at an early day (1566-15 73)." Dr. Shea in " The Log Chapel 
on the Rappahannock," in The Catholic World, March, 1875, 
p. 847, suggests the derivation of Axacan from Occoquan, and 
Alexander Brown in his reference to the Ecija Relation of 1609 
{The First Republic in America, Boston, 1898, p. 88) repeats 
this derivation. In his Genesis of the United States (1890, vol. 
ii., p. 947) he admits the identity of Axacan with the Chesa- 
peake, and his conclusion is deserving of great weight. In 
vol. i., p. 488, of the same work there is a note to the name 
" Xatamahane," which he has bracketed in the Spelman Rela- 
tion, and which he thinks may possibly be the Spanish name 
"Xacan." 

APPENDIX EE 

THE SITE OF THE SEGURA MISSION 

The only knowledge which we have of the locality where the 
Jesuits established their mission is contained in the very vague 
description of it given by Father Quiros in the joint letter 
which he wrote with Father Segura on the 12th of December, 
1570, a day or two after the landing, and is as follows: After 
referring to "la esperanza grande q se tiene de la conversion 
desta gente . . . y entrada para la sierra y la China " 
(p. 2), the letter continues on page y. " de la informacion 
desta tierra lo que toca a la derota q se ha de traer el piloto la 
dara porque no conviene q se entre por el rio que nosotros en- 
tramos a causa de no tener tambuena informacion quanto con- 
venia de los indios por donde aviamos de entrar y por esso es 
ydo oy el piloto por la tierra dos buenas leguas de aqui a ver 
un rio por donde se ha de hazer la entrada quanto con la 
buena ventura nos vengan a proveer y visitar, pues por aquella 



462 The Spanish Settlements 

parte se puede yr por mar hasta el lugar donde hemos dehazer 
la habitacion y por aqui ay dos buenas leguas por tierra y 
otros dos o mas por la mar . 

" La informacion que hasta ahora se ha podido aver de la 
tierra adentro es que unos indios que encontramos alia abaxo 
en este rio nos informaron que tres o quatros jornadas de alii 
estava la sierra y las dos dellas se yva por un rio y despues de 
la sierra otra Jornada o dos se via otro mar. ... (p. 6) 
. desque se entienda ser tiempo en que venga la fragata 
se embiara un indio o dos con una carta a la boca del 
brago de mar por donde se ha de passar . 

This is the sum total of the information conveyed by the 
letter. It does not mention when land was sighted, nor when 
the bay was entered. It does not state the distance sailed nor 
the direction taken by the vessel after entering the bay, nor 
how many rivers or harbours, if any, were passed before the 
vessel reached the river up which it sailed. It does not give 
the direction of the course of the river nor how far up it was 
ascended. The landing-place is not described, nor are its 
latitude and longitude mentioned. It does not tell the direc- 
tion followed by the pilot to reach the other river, nor the 
direction in which the other river flowed. The way to the 
mountains was partly by a river, but whether by a river flowing 
into the bay above or below the river the ship had ascended 
there is nothing to indicate. This is absolutely all that is 
known of the region visited by the Jesuits, for the only sur- 
vivor of the party was the boy Alonso, whose account is ob- 
scure, and none of the authorities relied on for the subsequent 
visit of Aviles to avenge the murder of the Fathers gives any 
details. 

It is upon this meagre evidence that Dr. Shea has based his 
conclusion that the Jesuits ascended the Potomac and ulti- 
mately settled on the Rappahannock. (" The Log Chapel on 
the Rappahannock," in T^e Catholic World, March, 1875, p. 
847. The Catholic Church in Colo7iial Days, New York, 1886, 
pp. 147, 149. "Ancient Florida" in Narr. and Crit. Hist. 
^w., New York, 1886, vol. ii., p. 282.) In " The Log Chapel" 
{ibid., p. 848), Dr. Shea observes: " Believing that the Chesa- 



Appendix EE 463 

peake, by the rivers running into it, would easily lead to the 
Western Ocean Menendez spent the winter of 1565 studying 
out the subject with the aid of Don Luis de Velasco [/. ^. , the 
Axacan Indian] and Father Urdaneta, a missionary just ar- 
rived from China by the overland route across Mexico." Both 
Meras (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo i., p. 258) and Barrientos 
(Garcia, Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida, p. 126) say Don 
Luis had been six years with Aviles, and all the information 
about Axacan which Aviles had obtained from him is probably 
set out in his letter to Philip IL, of October 15, 1565 (Ruidiaz,. 
ibid., tomo ii., pp. 93, 94, 100; see p. 212, in this volume). In 
the absence of any mention of the presence of Don Luis on the 
Ays expedition either by Aviles or by his two biographers, it 
is problematical whether he accompanied the Adelantado on 
his exploration and was with him in Havana during the winter 
of 1565-1566. What little we know of the information which 
Aviles obtained from Father Andres de Urdaneta, concerning 
the straits leading to China is found in the letter of the former 
to the King of January 30, 1566 (Ruidiaz, La Florida, tomo. 
ii., p. 151). The active occupation of Aviles during this 
winter could have left him but little time for the study of geo- 
graphical problems. 

While it is probable that the Jesuits were commissioned to 
inform themselves of the " entrada . , . para la China," 
the context of the quotation above given indicates that this 
was not their immediate objective, otherwise they would have 
followed the directions given by the natives. Their desire was 
to reach the country of Don Luis, where he could serve them 
as an interpreter, an object which they appear to have accom- 
plished, for they certainly reached a region the language of 
which he spoke. As their communication with the natives 
was entirely through him, his representations as to his relation- 
ship with the chiefs is not altogether free from suspicion in 
view of his subsequent treachery. The only point in favour of 
the site selected by Dr. Shea lies in his suggestion that Axacan 
is derived from Occoquan ("The Log Chapel," in ibid., p. 
851) in which he is followed by Alexander Brown, who is dis- 
posed to accept Dr. Shea's identification of the location i^The 



4^4 The Spanish Settlements 

First Republic in America, p. 88, Genesis of the United States, 
vol. ii., p. 947). 

It is only necessary to consult a map of the Chesapeake with 
its many rivers and creeks, both large and small, flowing into 
it from the west to see how improbable it is that a vessel de- 
layed in its voyage by stress of weather and short of provisions 
would ascend it to the Potomac before making harbour, and 
how readily the vague data of the letter can be applied to any 
of its numerous affluents, both as to the landing-place, the site 
of the mission, and the distance to the Alleghanies. In the 
absence of further particulars the term " brafo de mar por 
donde se ha de passar" can refer to the estuaries of the James, 
the York, Mobjack Bay, Piankatank River, and the Rappahan- 
nock as well as to the Potomac, into some small river either 
above or below the mouth of any of which the Jesuits may 
have entered, since no direction is given. While it is equally 
impossible to assert that the rivers visited by the Jesuits were 
not the Potomac and the Rappahannock, yet in view of the 
absence of any substantial evidence to establish their identity 
the question must remain an open one until more definite in- 
formation is produced, notwithstanding the high authority of 
Dr. Shea. 

APPENDIX FF 

MAPA DE LA FLORIDA Y LAGUNA DE MAIMI DONDE SE HA DE 
HACER UN FUERTE (aRCH. GEN. DE INDIAS, SEVILLE, 

EST. 145, CAJ. 7, LEG. 7) x 

This map is anonymous, undated, and unaccompanied by 
data of any description. 

The coast names on the map, reading from east to west, are: 
s helena (Santa Elena), ahoya. b de los baxos (Bahia de 
los Bajos). cofonufo. hospogahe (Espogache of the Rela- 
tions), asao. Guadalquini. Ballenas. S pedro (San Pedro). 
Sena. S mateo. S agustin. matancas (Matanzas). moy- 
squitos (Mosquitos). cabo de canaberal. ays. S iozia 
(probably san Iozia — Santa Lucia), Xega. vocas de migel 



Appendix FF 465 

mora (Bocas de Miguel de Mora), hensenada de niupa. b* 
de Carlos (Bahia de Carlos), b* de tacabaga (Bahia de Taca- 
baga, also written Tocobaga). hensenada de carles, punta 
de apalahe (Punta de Apalache). 

In the centre: laguna de meiymi. The islands are: ba- 
hama. mimeres. isla de cuba. havana. martires. tor- 
tugas. The inscription endorsed on the map, and reproduced 
at the bottom of the copy in this volume, is: " Planta de la 
costa de la florida y en que Paraje esta La LaGuna Maymi y 
adonde se ha de hacer el fuerte." 

The map is No. 94 of D. Pedro Torre Lanzas, Mapas de 
Mexico y Florida^ tomo i., p. 71, where he dates it " siglo 

i7(?)" 

All of the names on this map are found either on earlier maps 
or in Relations accessible to the writer prior to 1596 with the 
exception of " hospogahe," which first appears under the form 
" Espogache " in 1606 (in Marques's " Relacion," Ruidiaz, La 
Florida^ tomo ii., p. 506) and " hensenada de niupa," which 
does not appear elsewhere. 

In 1595 Juan Maldonado Barnuevo, Governor of Havana, 
sent his nephew Juan Maldonado to examine the coast from 
St. Augustine as far as the southern extremity of the Florida 
Keys. In the ** Derrotero" of the expedition appears for the 
first time the Florida coast names " jega " (Xega of the map) 
and "bocas de miguel de mora" (see Barnuevo's letter of 
July 6, 1595, with the annexed " Derrotero." Arch. Gen. de 
Indias, Seville, MS., est. 54, caj. i, leg. 15). At about this 
date Juan de Posada, who had come to Florida in 1586, where 
he had spent seven years (Letter of Albaro Flores, Novem- 
ber 9, 1586, Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete^ tomo 
xxii., Doc. No. 98) wrote to the home government advising 
the dismantling of all of the forts in Florida, ' ' y que haga 
hacer uno en la cabeza de los Martires" (see his undated 
" Relacion," Direc. de Hidrog., Madrid, Col. Navarrete, Doc. 
No. 31). 

In view of the fact that Posada was probably in Florida at 
the time of Maldonado's return from his expedition; that the 
location given the fort on the map corresponds with the 



466 The Spanish Settlements 

description in the "Derrotero"; that these particular legends 
are identical in both map and "Derrotero," and that the script 
used on the map and in the endorsed title is of the period in 
which his letter was written, it is not at all improbable that 
the map formed part of Posada's letter. 

\ 



INDEX 



Abalache, 448 

Acuna, Juan de, sent to France, 
107, 109 

Aguaquiri, 448 

Aguatira, 448 

Aguirre, Captain, sent to San 
Mateo, 256; left in charge, 257 

Ahoya, 444, 452 

Ahoyabe, 445 

Aij, 395 

Aisa Hatcha, 432, 433 

Ais, Province of, 433 

Ais, Rio de, 432, 433 

Aiz el biejo, 433 

Aiz, Rio de, 432 

Alabama, 409 

Alamo, Father Gonzalo del, 
accompanies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; returns to Eu- 
rope, 342, 349; sent to San 
Antonio, 345 

Alava, Frances de, 107, 118, 299, 
457; succeeds Chantone at 
French Court, loi; treat- 
ment accorded his protests, 
102; warns Philip against 
French designs on Florida, 
104; of Ribaut's prepara- 
tions, 106; that French know 
of Aviles's armada, 109; his 
credulity, 109, no; leaves for 
Bayonne, instructions, 109, 
no, 113; audience with Cath- 
erine de' Medici, 11 4-1 16; 
conversation with Burdin, 
116, 117; instructed to in- 
form Catherine of French de- 
feat, 301; his explanation of 
Jacques Ribaut's bearing, 301 ; 
his interview with Catherine, 



302; Fourquevaux's com- 
plaint of his language, 306; 
instructions from Philip, 306; 
interview with Catherine, 307- 
310; informs Philip of meet- 
ings at Coligny's house, 316; 
and Laudonniere, 317; noti- 
fies Philip of loss of San Mateo 
and protests, 335; reports on 
treasure imported into Spain, 
388; instructions relative to 
the Matanzas massacre, 429 

Alba, Fernando Alvarez de 
Toledo, Duke of, treaty of 
Cateau-Cambr&is and the 
West Indies, 24; informs 
Philip of French prohibition 
respecting West India naviga- 
tion, 25; advises Philip con- 
cerning the French in Florida, 
106; at Bayonne conference, 
1 10 ; his instructions, in; 
advises Philip, 112; interview 
with Fourquevaux, 300, 301; 
informs Fourquevaux of 
French defeat in Florida, 304- 
306 ; his opinion of the Matan- 
zas massacre, 306; interviews 
with Fourquevaux, 319, 320 

Albaycin, 364 

Albemarle River, 402, 404 

Alcala, Spain, 269 

Alcaudete, Count of, 269 

Alexander VI., Bull of May 4, 
1493, 16 

Alfonse, Jean, encounter with 
Aviles, 122 

Algarve, 12, 279 

Alimacany, where situated, var- 
ious forms of, 59; blockhouse 
built at, 289, 297; Le Moyne's 
knowledge of, 412 



467 



468 



Index 



Alimacany (river), 397; Gour- 
gues at the, 327 

AUeghanies, 275, 463 

Alligator hide sent to France, 
Le Challeux's idea of an, 76 

Almohades, 136 

Alonso accompanies Father Se- 
gura to Chesapeake Bay, 360; 
his escape, 365; rescued by 
Aviles, 373 

Altamaha, 390, 391, 397 

Amasura, Rio, 449 

Amaya, Diego de, accompanies 
Aviles's first Florida expedi- 
tion, 148; crosses with Aviles 
to Havana, 218; sent to St. 
Augustine, 222; returns, 225; 
accompanies Aviles to Carlos, 
228; rescued at St. Augustine, 
253; at Matanzas, 428 

Amboise, peace of, 36, 51 

Amboyna, massacre of, 206 

Amelia Island, 59, 347, 348, 454 

Anastasia Island, 159 

Andalusia, 12, 295 

Andrada, Pedro de,at St. Augus- 
tine, 263; sent to assist 
Outina, is slain, 294 

Antilles, 11 

Antonia, Dona, 260; appear- 
ance, 236; marries Aviles, 
238; and goes to Havana, 
238, 242; her stay there, 254; 
returns to San Antonia, 255; 
returns to Havana, 276; ac- 
companies Aviles to San An- 
tonio, 277; her sister prisoner 
at Tocobaga, 278 

Antwerp, Aviles's tripto, 130, 131 

Anunciacion, Fray Domingo de 
la, jealousy aroused by his 
mission, 266 

Apalache, 291 

River, 449 

Apalatci, Montes, 411, 413 

Appalachee Bay, 212 

Appalachian Mountains, 287, 
415; gold region of, 78; silver 
from, 179 

■Appalachians, 59 

Aquatio, 412 

Aracuchi, 445 

Arauchi, 445 

Archer's Creek, 405 

Arciniega, Sancho de, to rein- 



force Florida, 222; prepara- 
tions to receive, 223; reaches 
St. Augustine, 255; relieves 
San Felipe and San Mateo, 
256; meeting with Aviles, 
256; part of his fleet returns 
to Spain, 262; his sailing dis- 
courages France, 317 

Arcos, Cuba, 80 

Arenas, Cabo de, 459 

Arlac sent to Outina, 78 

Armada de las Carreras de las 
Indias, its origin, course, and 
duty, 12; customs of, 126; 
Aviles appointed captain-gen- 
eral of, 134 

Arguelles, Martin, his quarrel 
with Bartolome Menendez de 
Aviles, 294; father of first 
white child born at St. Augus- 
tine, 294 

Artamua, 129 

Artedo, 290, 291 

Asis, Rio, 431, 432 

Asturian colonists sent to Flor- 
ida, 3S2 

Asturians in attack on Fort 
Caroline, 170 

Asturias, 120, 149, 218, 291 

Atinas, Martin, 89 

Atlantic, 413 

Aubespine, Claude de, 115 

Sebastien de. Bishop of 

Limoges, 28 

Audiencia, of Hispaniola, 82 

of Mexico, 254, 368 

of Santo Domingo, 224, 

263 

Audusta, 246, 412; Landon- 
niere sends expedition to, 40, 
84 

Augustin, Brother Domingo, ac- 
companies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; sent to Guale, 
344; prepares grammar of 
Guale language, 349; dies 
from epidemic, 350 

Austria, notified by Philip of 
French defeat, 310, 311 

Avila (Portugal), 279 

Aviles, Alvar Sanchez de, 129 

Aviles, Bartolome Menendez de, 
admiral on Aviles's second 
West India voyage, 134; im- 
prisoned by Casa de Contra- 



Index 



469 



Aviles — Continued 

tacion, 135, 138; accom- 
panies Aviles's first Florida 
expedition, 148; in charge at 
St. Augustine, 169, 214, 263 
recovers a French ship, 188 
seeks to relieve colony, 240 
falls ill, 241; his quarrel 
with Henriquez, 284; with 
Arguelles, 203, 204; informs 
Aviles of Gourgues's attack, 
334; returns to Spain, 356 

Catalina Men6ndez de, 

her two marriages, 148, 384; 
Aviles's bequest to, 384 

Juan Menendez de, ac- 



companies his father to Spain, 
132; wrecked off Bermuda, 
139; hope of finding him at 
Carlos, 227 

Maria Menendez de, mar- 



ried to Diego de Velasco, 384; 
Aviles's bequest to her, 384 
Pedro Menendez de, ne- 



phew of the Adelantado, in 
charge at St. Augustine, 357; 
falling ill, goes to Havana, 372 
Pedro Menendez de, 393, 



401, 408, 438; principal 
sources for the history of, v; 
his correspondence, vi, x, xi; 
his original Relacion, ix; its 
reliability, x; advises ports of 
refuge in neighbourhood of 
the Bahama Channel, 13; 
points out danger from in- 
crease of negroes in West In- 
dies, 14, 15 ; his tribute to the 
French Protestant Indian Mis- 
sion, 78; Coligny advises 
Ribaut of his departure for 
Florida, 95; arrival there, 
100; warns against French 
occupation of Florida, 104; 
French informed of his arm- 
ada, 109; sails for Florida, 
113; birth and parentage, 
120, 121; boyhood, 121; en- 
counter with Jean Alfonse, 
122; ability recognised, 122; 
appointed captain-general of 
West India fleet, 123, 127; his 
duties, 123-126; his integrity, 
125, 126; incurs animosity of 
Casa de Contratacion, 226; 



accompanies Philip to Eng- 
land, 126; dies poor, 126; 
first voyage to West Indies, 
127; appointed to guard 
Spanish coast, 128; expedi- 
tions to Flanders, 128, 130, 
131; saves Mendoza's fleet, 
129; conducts Philip to Spain 
131-132; illness, 133; second 
voyage to West Indies, 133- 
134; captain-general of the 
Carrera de las Indias, 134; 
conflict with the Casa, 134; 
third voyage to West Indies, 
134, 135; his law suit with 
the Casa, 135-138; his house 
at Aviles, 138; loss of his 
only son, 138, 139; appointed 
to conquer Florida, 139; his 
character, 139-141; his por- 
trait, 141 ; asiento with 
Philip II. to conquer Florida, 
142-145; salary, 144; titles, 
144; goes to Madrid, 146; his 
fleet, 147; colonists, 147-149; 
sails, 149; at the Canaries, 
149; at Puerto Rico, 150; his 
plan of defence, 151; leaves 
Puerto Rico, 152; reaches 
Florida, 153; anchors at St. 
Augustine, 154; leaves St. 
Augustine and discovers 
French fleet, 155, 156; at- 
tacks and pursues it, 157, 158; 
returns to and founds St. 
Augustine, 158, 159; appoints 
officers, 160; reports to Philip, 
161; Protestants among his 
colonists, 163; attacked at 
St. Augustine by Ribaut, 167 ; 
prepares to attack Fort Caro- 
line, 168, 169; the march, 
170, 171; the attack, 172- 
175; and capture, 175-179; 
names it San Mateo, 180; re- 
turns to St. Augustine, 181, 
186; his reception, 188, 189; 
at Matanzas Inlet, 190, 195; 
kills the French wrecked from 
Ribaut 's fleet, 191-203; re- 
fuses to be bribed, 192, 198; 
relieves San Mateo, 194; his 
estimate of Jean Ribaut, 200; 
Spanish opinion of his action, 
203-205; probable motives, 



470 



Index 



Aviles — Continued 

203; Philip approves his act, 
206; his report to Philip, 207 ; 
his plans for Florida , 2 1 1 -2 1 3 ; 
his geographical ideas, 212; 
leaves for French fort near 
Cape Canaveral, 214; cap- 
tures it, 215; at Ays, 216; 
voyage to Havana, 217; re- 
leases the French prisoners, 
218; meets Marques at Ha- 
vana, 218; refused assistance 
by Osorio, 220, 221; informs 
Philip, 221; relieves St. Au- 
gustine, 222; learns of Arci- 
niega's departure, 222; re- 
newed trouble with Osorio, 
223; treatment of deserters, 
225 ; hears of French at Guale, 
226; of Carlos, 226; plans, 
227; his first Carlos expedi- 
tion, 228-239; marries Car- 
los 's sister, 238 ; returns to St. 
Augustine, 240; quells mu- 
tinies at San Mateo and St. 
Augustine, 242-245; first 
Gua,le expedition, 245-247; 
at Orista, 247 ; at Santa 
Elena, 247; founds San Felipe 
248; returns to Guale, 249- 
250; to San Mateo, 251; to 
St. Augustine, 252; to Hav- 
ana, 253, 254; to San Antonio, 
255; back to Havana, 255; 
to San Mateo, 255; to St. Au- 
gustine, 256; meeting with 
Arciniega, 256; to San Mateo, 
257; ascends the St. John's, 
257; returns to San Mateo, 
258; and the Northwest pas- 
sage, 259 ; sends expedition to 
the Bay of Santa Maria, 259; 
goes to San Felipe, 261; to 
Guale and back to San Mateo, 
262; to St. Augustine, 262; 
sends Reynoso to Carlos, 263; 
sails for Puerto Rico, 263, 
273; his account of Indian 
religion, 264; attempts to 
obtain missionaries, 265, 274; 
letter on death of Father 
Martinez, 273; his search for 
Father Rogel, 273; at San 
Antonio, 277; expedition to 
Tocobaga, 278-280; returns 



to San Antonio, 280; quells 
Havana mutiny 281 ; goes to 
Tegesta, 282; at San Mateo, 
282 ; interview with Saturiba, 
283; at St. Augustine, 284; 
at San Felipe, 284; results 
attained, 286-289; orders 
forts to be built, 289; sails for 
Spain, 290; at Madrid, 291; 
presents himself at Court, 
291; appointed captain-gen- 
eral of the West and to com- 
mandry of Santiago, 292; 
Alba's explanation of his 
cruelty, 305, 306; Fourque- 
vaux demands his punish- 
ment, 319; Philip's final ex- 
planation of Aviles 's action, 
321; reported to be at the 
Canaries, 323; asks for more 
missionaries, 341; attempts 
to relieve St. Augustine, 343; 
his second visit to Florida, 
345; sends succour to Florida, 
356; fears attack by Haw- 
kins, 356 ; succour delayed by 
Casa de Contrataci6n, 356; 
exerts his influence for Las 
Alas, 358 ; his theory of North- 
west passage, Portuguese set- 
tlements in Florida, 367 ; asks 
licence to settle Panuco, 368; 
and obtains it, 369; fifth 
voyage to Indies, 370; Pius 
V.'s letter to him, 370; escorts 
India fleets, 370; sails on his 
last voyage to Florida, 371; 
at Havana and San Felipe, 
372; at Axacan, 372; hangs 
the murderers of the Jesuits, 
373; wrecked near Cape Can- 
averal, 374; escapes to St. 
Augustine, and returns to 
Havana, 374; at Hispaniola 
and return to Spain, 375; 
sends farmers to Florida, 375 ; 
anxious on account of his 
colony, 379; equips armada 
against pirates, 382; sends 
settlers to Florida, 382; ob- 
tains patent for invention, 
382; desires to return to 
Florida, 383; death, 383; his 
will, 384; character, 385. 386; 
description of the "Riviere de 



Index 



471 



Aviles — Continued 

Mai," 390; portraits of, 418; 
coat of arms of, 419 ; his oath 
at Matanzas, 421—425; his 
treatment of Ribaut's body, 
425-429; his situation at the 
time of the Matanzas mas- 
sacres, 429-431; his visits to 
Santa Elena, 443; date of his 
second voyage to Florida, 457, 
458 ; his knowledge of Axacan 
458 

sea-port of, 120, 138, 

249, 219, 290 

Axaca, 459, 460 

Axacam, 459 

Axacan, 260, 342, 361, 365, 463; 
expeditions to, 259,372,373; 
identified with Chesapeake 
Bay, 458-461 

Axona Iracana, 395 

Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, re- 
quests extension of term to 
settle Florida, his death, 50 

Ayllon 's expedition of 1520, 41, 
108 

Ays, 239, 287, 374, 446, 463; 
Aviles at, 216; Medrano 
settled near, 217; experience 
of settlement, 224, 225; plan 
to relieve, 227; Perucho, a 
chief of, 258; settlement 
abandoned, 357 ; wherefound, 
431-434; various forms of 
name, 432 

Indians, 58; their coun- 
try, 216 

Rio de, 435 



Azores, 12, 32, 290 
Azurite mine, reported finding 
of, 378 



B 



Badajos, Congress of, 17 
Bahama Channel, 31, 82, 260; 
path of West Indian com- 
merce, 12; discovered by 
Ponce de Leon, 13; its dan- 
gers, 13; proximity to Florida, 
13, 14; French intention to 
occupy neighbourhood of, 21; 
Ribatit's second expedition to 
command the, 96; menace of 
a French settlement near, 103 



-105, 109; Aviles 's fleet in, 
153 ; Aviles in, 240 

Ballenas, Bahia de, 453 

Baracou, 81 

Barbary, 325 

Barchino, Gaspar, his opinion of 
the French, 103 ; warns Philip 
against French designs on 
Florida, 104 

Barcia, Andreas Gonzales, ac- 
count in his Ensayo Crono- 
logico of the conquest of 
Florida by Aviles, v; copies 
the Meras Memorial, ix; re- 
liability of his account, x 

Bamuevo, Juan Maldonado, 
Governor of Havana, his re- 
port on the Florida coast, 465 

Barreda, Captain, 281 

Barre, Nicolas, succeeds Pierria 
in command at Charlesfort, 42 

Barrientos, Bartolom^, 137, 138, 
205, 232, 239, 247, 251; his 
Vida y hechos de Pero Menen- 
dez de Auiles ,'v ,vn ; reproduces 
the Relacion of Aviles, viii; its 
reliability , x ; his opinion of the 
Matanzas massacres, 204; of 
Aviles 's oath at Matanzas, 422 

Basque pilot with Laudonnidre, 

53 

Basques in attack on Fort Caro- 
line, 170 

Basse, 395, 399 

Batten Island, 297 

Bayahonda, Cuba, 218 

Bayonne, arming of vessels for 
the Indies at, 10 1 

Conference, Philip sends 

his queen to, 106 ; Alava leaves 
for, 109; Alba at, 110-113; 
failure of, 113; France warned 
at, 320 

Bazaine, Francois Achille, 369 

Bazares, Guido de las, see La- 
bazares 

Beaguez, Pedro, visits Santa 
Martha, 22 

Beaufort, S. C, 402, 405 

Island, 404 

Beauhaire, M. de, 166 

Belle, 34, 395, 398 

a veoir, 395, 399, 413 

Isle-en-Mer, 315, 322 

voir, 395, 396 



472 



Index 



Bellum, 395 

Bermuda, 12, 13, 33, 139 

Biscay, 149, 218, 370 

Biscayne Bay, 260, 287, 441 

Blanco, Cape, 325 

Bojador, Cape, 16 

Bordeaux, expedition for the 
Indies equipped at, 10 1 ; 
Gourgues sails from, 325 ; and 
returns to, 334 

Borgia, Francisco, Duke of 
Gandia, appoints Jesuit mis- 
sionaries for Florida, 266; 
sends Jesuits to Oran, 269; 
names Father Segura and 
other priests for Florida, 341; 
names Father Segura rector of 
College of Villimar, 342 

Bourbon, Cardinal de, 315 

Bourdet, Captain, returns to 
France, 79 

Bourne, E. G., his account of the 
conquest of Florida by Avil^s, 
xii ; opinion of Matanzas mas- 
sacre, 206 

Boyano, 294, 295, 296; in com- 
mand at Fort San Juan, 276; 
his war against the Chisca 
chief, 284; expedition to 
Chiaha, 285, 286 

Brazil, 10 

Bretones, Tierra de los, 116 

Breton fishermen in Newfound- 
land, 19 

Bretons, Coste des, 301 

Isles des, 302, 308, 309 

Land of the, 117 

Bretons, Terredes, 118, 119, 300, 
305, 319: maps showing, 417 

Breu, Pedro, 327 

Bribery of Captain-General, 125, 
126 

of French officials, pirates 

practise, 10 1 

Brinton, Daniel G., his opinion 
of Pulgar's Historic general 
de la Florida, xv 

Brittany: Spanish secret agent 
in, 20; vessels equipped for 
Indies in, 25, 26, loi 

Broad River, 35, 398, 403, 446 

Burdin, secretary of Charles IX., 
his interview with Alava, 116, 
117 



Cabray, 81 

Cadiz, 113, 123, 146, 147, 149, 

^ 163, 25s, 357 

Cajucos, 447 

Calais, 39, 128, 130 

California, 270 

Caloosa Indian guides Avil^s to 
Tocobaga, 278 

Coloosa Indians, 58, 255, 261, 
277, 348, 414; human sacrifice, 
226, 264; their country, 229, 
436; customs, 230; mark of 
respect, 232; Father Rogel's 
mission among, 277, 278, 339, 
340; marriage custom, 341; 
revolt against Spaniards, 346; 
maps and recent history, 437, 
438 

Calos, 412, 414, 437 

Calvinists in Ribaut's first Flor- 
ida expedition, 31; with 
Laudonniere, 53 

Cambahee, 275, 276; (see Com- 
bahee) 

Campeche, 223, 282, 372 

Canada, 32, 270, 335 

Canaries, 12, 32, 122, 149, 150, 
218, 219, 323, 342, 370, 458 

Canaveral, Cape, 45, 59, 154, 
214. 250, 374, 413, 431, 432, 

433. 435. 449 . 

Cancer, Fray Luis, 265 ; jealousy 
aroused by his mission, 266 

Canche, 451 

Cannouchee River, 445 

Caongacola, 448 

Canos, 445, 446 

Canosi, 445 

Canotes, F., 412 

Cape de Verd Islands, 17, 143 

Captain-General of the West In- 
dia fleet, his duties, 123-126; 
Avil6s appointed, 123 

Carabay, 258, 453 

CarafFa, Cardinal, 128 

Carlos, 260, 261; Spaniards 
from, escape to Laudonniere, 
83; his Christian slaves, 226; 
his village, 230; relations 
with Avilds, 231-239; his 
wife, 237; his sister, 238; her 
return to him, 255; Lake 
Mayini and the country of, 
258; Father Rogel destined 



Index 



473 



Carlos — Continued 

for, 273; attempts to kill 
Reynoso, 277; accompanies 
Avil^s to Tocobaga, 277; his 
interview with Tocobaga, 279 ; 
plots against the Spaniards, 
340; is killed by them, 341 

Carlos, Bahia de, 450 

Bay of, Spanish settle- 
ment in, 281, 287 

village of, 230, 231; 



named San Antonio, 239; 
settlement at, abandoned, 346, 

357 

Caro, 395 

Carolina coast, 412 

Caroline, Fort, 80, 81, 83, 191, 
19s, 197, 201, 245, 255, 300, 
314-316, 323, 334, 390, 405, 
409, 412, 420; Laudonniere 
founds, 57; Hawkins at, 
88; Jean Ribaut at, 97, 164, 
165; Jacques Ribaut at, 99; 
the garrison at, 165; Spanish 
preparations to attack, 168; 
its situation, 170; march 
upon, 170-172; capture of, 
172-179, 214; named San 
Mateo by Avil^s, 180; women 
and children captured at, set 
free, 322 ; Debray captured at, 
327; description and identi- 
fication of its site, 405-407 ; 
number of French vessels 
captured at, 420; burning of, 

430 

Carrera de las Indias, see 
Armada de 

Carthagena, 11; negro popula- 
tion of 14 ; burned by Jacques 
de Soria, 22 

Cartier, Jacques, his first and 
second expeditions, 19; his 
third expedition and measures 
taken by Spain to defeat it, 
20—22 

Casa de Contratacion, founded, 
4; governing board of, 4; 
records of discoveries kept in 
the, 7 ; visitador of, 1 1 ; ap- 
points Captain-General, 123; 
persecutes Avil^s, 126, 127; 
and refuses to pay his salary, 
134; its charges against him, 
135-138; French prisoners 



forwarded to, 322; delays re- 
lief sent by Avil^s, 343, 357; 
delays Avil^s's return to Flor- 
ida, 371 

Casina, Timuquanan drink, 66 

Castellon, commander at San 
Mateo, wounded in Indian at- 
tack, 297 ; recovering from 
his wounds at time of French 
attack, 298; warned of 
Gourgues's approach, 332 ; es- 
capes the massacre, 333 

Casti, 412 

Castillo, Pedro del, assists Aviles, 
146 

Castro, Aviles at, 130 

Castro the Licenciate, Governor 
of Peru, 137 

Catawba, 447 

Cateau-Cambr^sis, treaty of, 23 ; 
and the West Indies, 24 

Catherine de' Medici, Chantone 
notifies her of Ribaut 's de- 
signs on Florida, 28; her an- 
swer, 29; assists Ribaut 's first 
Florida expedition, 31; de- 
lays explanation, 44; charges 
Laudonniere to respect Span- 
ish rights, 53 ; her interest in 
Ribaut 's second expedition, 
95; her treatment of Alava's 
protests, 102; and the Ba- 
yonne Conference, 106, no; 
Alava instructed to inform 
her of Philip's claims to Flor- 
ida, 109, no; her curiosity, 
no; foils Philip at Bayonne, 
113; at Tours, 114; Alava's 
audience with, 114; Four- 
quevaux 's advice to, 114, 115; 
her dependence on Philip, 
299; her duplicity, 300; 
interviews with Alava, 302, 
307—310; renews promises to 
respect Spanish rights, 303; 
her answer to Enveja's com- 
plaint, 316; Philip's treat- 
ment of her protests, 318, 319; 
tries to work upon her daugh- 
ter, 319; memorial to Philip, 
321; her attitude towards 
Coligny, 322; her answer to 
Alava's protest about 
Gourgues, 335 ; and the North- 
west passage, 367 



474 



Index 



Catos, 414, 437 

Cauchi, 45 r ; Pardo erects block- 
house at, 296; its fate, 296, 

Cavuitas, Riviere des, 390 

Cayas, Gabriel de, 457 

Cecil, William, opinion on Co- 
ligny's Florida enterprise, 312 

Celda, Spain, 267 

Cevalios, Brother Sancho, ac- 
companies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; and to Chesa- 
peake Bay, 360; his death, 
364 

Francisco de, his treat- 
ment of Florida deserters, 
244, 245 

Chalahume, 451 

Chantone, Perrenot de, 26, 27, 
31. 44, 45- 50- 389; Spanish 
ambassador to France, 25; 
protests against French ag- 
gressions in West Indies, 25 ; 
notifies Philip II. of Ribaut's 
designs on Florida, 28, 104; 
protests to Catherine de' 
Medici, 29 ; his successor, loi ; 
instructed to notify Austria 
of the French defeat, 310, 311 

Charenta, 395 

Charente, Florida, 34, 395, 397 

France, 325 

Charles IX., 42, loi, 292, 304, 
305 ; Charlesfort named in 
honour of, 35; Fort Caroline 
also, 58; at Tours, 114; 
widows of Florida settlers 
petition, 318 

Charles V., warns Emanuel I. of 
Portugal not to steal Spanish 
pilots, 17; warns Philip II. 
against French aggression in 
the West Indies, 18; recog- 
nises ability of Aviles, 122; 
appoints him Captain-General, 
123; Carlos a corruption of 
his name, 231 

Charlesfort, 245, 394, 402, 403, 
414; Ribaut's settlement at, 
35, 40-44; abandoned by 
Coligny, 36; identified with 
Ayllon's first landfall, 41; 
dissentions at, 41; story of 
concealed treasure, 42; aban- 
doned by settlers, 42, 43; 



their fate, 44; Philip II. ad- 
vised of colony left at, 44; 
orders its expulsion, 45 ; Man- 
rique de Rojas at, 47, 48; its 
site identified, 403-405 ; San 
Felipe near site of, 440 

Charlotte Harbour, 287 

Chamet, 395 

Charts, see Maps 

Chatham Bay, 231 

Chatillon, Cardinal, at Tours, 
114; see Xatillon 

Chenonceau, 35, 404, 405 

Cherokees, 295 

Cherokee settlements, 447 

Chesapeake Bay, 212, 259, 260, 
291, 367, 381, 462; Jesuit 
mission to, 360-366; expedir 
tions to, 259. 372, 373; iden- 
tified with Axacan and Bahia 
de Santa Maria, 458-461 

Chiaha, 294, 295, 443, 451, 452; 
Boyano's expedition to, 285; 
where he builds Fort Santa 
Elena, 286 

Chicaja, 291 

Chicora, 40 

Chihaque, 286, 451 

China, passage to, 212, 259, 362, 
367, 461, 463 

Chiquola, giant race and city of, 
40 

Chisca of De Soto, Boyano at 
the, 284 

Choctaw country, where found, 
296; Pardo in, 296 

Chouanes, Riviere des, 398 

Cibola, Ribaut on first expedi- 
tion thinks he hears of, 34 

Cicuye, 340 

Cimarron negroes, 382 

Cobos, Francisco de los, instruc- 
tions to prevent French under- 
takings in the Indies, 19; his 
letter to the Spanish ambas- 
sador to Portugal, 20 

Cofa, 212, 296 

Coyao, 445 

Cofetafque, 445 

Cofetazque, 445 

Coligny, Gaspard de, promises to 
respect Spanish rights in the 
Indies, 25; his hatred of 
Spain and desire to weaken 
her, 29; sends Villcgaignon to 



Index 



475 



Coligny — Contimied 

Brazil, 29; determines to 
colonise Florida, 29; selects 
Jean Ribaut to command the 
expedition, 30 ; abandons 
Charlesfort, 36; Stuck eley's 
enterprise attrilsuted to, 39; 
renews his designs on Florida, 
51; assists Laudonniere's ex- 
pedition, 52; assists Ribaut 's 
second expedition, 94; recalls 
Laudonniere, 94, 98; his 
letter to Ribaut, 95; treat- 
ment of Alava's protests, 102 ; 
hears Jacques Ribaut 's report, 
300 ; accused of the Florida en- 
terprise by Philip, 304; Alba 
asks his punishment, 305 ; his 
designs upon the West Indies, 
306; Alava's accusations 
against, 307 ; Catherine's de- 
fence of, 308, 309; Philip's 
accusations against , 311, 312; 
Cecil's opinion of, 312; secret 
meetings at his house, 315; 
Catherine's favourable atti- 
tude towards, 322 

Columbus, Georgia, 285 

Combahee River, 402, 405 (see 
Cambahee) 

Commerce, Avil^s's privilege, 

144, 145 

Commerce, between Spain and 
the West Indies, 4; merchan- 
dise, 5 ; gold, silver, and gems, 
5; between Puerto Rico, His- 
paniola, Tierra Firme, and 
Honduras, 10 

Cond6, Louis I., Prince of, assists 
Ribaut 's first Florida expedi- 
tion, 31; servants of his in 
Ribaut 's second Florida ex- 
pedition, 215 

Conspectu Bellum, 395 

Coosa River, 295 

Coosawhatchee, S. C, 403, 445 

Cordova, 291 

Cordova, Martin de, expedition 
to Oran, 269 

Corrientes, Ribera de las, 389 

Rio de las, 46 

Cortes, Hernando, 369; Verra- 
zano captures his treasure 
fleet, 9 

Cortuan, 459 



Corunna, 44, 290 

Cossette, Captain, 164 

Council of Indies on Philip's 
title to Florida, 107 

Courset sails under orders from 
Coligny, 304 

Coz, Martinez de, remains at 
Tocobaga, 280 

Cozao, 445 

Creek Indians, Par do's first ex- 
pedition through the country 
of the, 276; his second ex- 
pedition 295; Boyano's ex- 
pedition, 285 

Crews of Spanish vessels, French 
treatment of, 83 

Cromwell, Oliver, and the mas- 
sacre of Drogheda, 206 

Cruz, Rio de la, 46 

Cuba, 217, 253, 262, 288, 301; 
negro population of, 14; Fort 
Caroline pirates in, 79, 81; 
French settlement in Florida 
a menace to, 103; French 
prisoners sent to, 201; Aviles 
Governor of, 292, 345; Pedro 
Menendez Marquds, Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of, 357 

Cuenca, Spain, 269 

Cufitatchiqui, 275, 287, 294, 438, 

445 
Cumberland Island, 272, 378, 

453. 454 

— ■ Sound, 453, 454 

Cursol, Madame de, see Cursot 
Cursot, Madame de, assists Ri- 
baut 's first Florida expedition, 

D 

Dartmouth, 129 

Dauphins, R. des, 416 

Days, Rio, 432 

Debray, Pierre, assists Gour- 

gues, 327 
Delpeuch, Maurice, his account 

of the conquest of Florida by 

Aviles, xii 
Denmark, 163 
Descalona, Fray Luis, 340 
Deserters from Florida, Avilds's 

proposed treatment of, 225 
Dieppe sailor, his story of the 

massacre of Jean Ribaut and 

his own escape, 200-203 



476 



Index 



Dolphins, River of, 32, 33, 413; 
Laudonniere at 54; called 
Seloy by natives, 54; Avilds 
at, 154 

Dominica, 149, 150, 326 

Dominican friars for Florida, 
223; with Meras, 254, 265; 
sent to the Bay of Santa 
Maria, 259; take the Indian 
Don Luis to Havana, 360 

Order, missions under- 
taken without advice of its 
Provincial Chapter, 266 

Dover, 128 

Drake, Sir Francis, his attack 
on St. Augustine, 379 

Drayton Island, 84, 411 

Drogheda, massacre of, 206 

Dulce, Rio, 440 

Du Lys, 165, 166 

Dutch massacre of English, 206 



E 



Eboli, Prince of, 129, 321; see 
Gomez, Ruy 

Ecija, Francisco Fernandez de, 
expedition to lacan, 459, 461 

Edelano, 84, 411, 412 

Edisto, 398, 399, 402, 404 

Indians, 40 

Elizabeth, Queen, interview 
with Ribaut, 36; designs on 
Florida, 37; assists Stukeley 
with ship, 37; interest in 
Hawkins's slave trade, 89; 
informed of French defeat in 
Florida, 311, 312 

Emanuel I. of Portugal steals 
Spanish pilots, 17 

Emeralds imported into Spain, 
388 

Enfrenado, 445 

English, jealousy of Spanish suc- 
cess in West Indies, 4; rumour 
of attack on Madeira, 9; en- 
terprise in North America, 15, 
16 

piracies, Spain de- 
mands a statute restricting 
them, 10 

Roman Catholic colony 



designed for Florida, 206 
vessels attack St. Au- 



gustine, 374 



Englishman in Ribaut 's first 
Florida expedition, 31 

Enveja, Doctor Gabriel de, sent 
to Madrid, 109; Philip II. 's 
agent at Moulins, 302; threat- 
ened by Jacques Ribaut, 302; 
informed of Gourgues's expe- 
dition, 324 

Erlach, accompanies Laudon- 
niere, 52; assists Outina, 78 

Escamacu, 352 

Escudero, Alberto, stationed at 
Juada, 296 

Espiritu Santo, the, 357 

Espiritu Santo, bahia de, 448 

Rio del, 369 

Espogache, 465 

Estrada, Sebastian de, 132 

Eugenius IV. 's grant to Portu- 
gal, 16 

Everglades, 229 



Farmers colonised at Santa 
Elena, 352; sent to colonise 
Florida, 375 

Faulcon, the, 53 

Felipe, Don, successor of Carlos, 
341; killed by order of Mar- 
ques, 346 

Ferdinand of Spain, 300 

Fernandez, Antonio, in charge 
at Tacatacuru, 357 

Fernandina, 454 

Figueroa, the Regent, 131 

Finisterre, 122 

Flanders, 128, 163, 290, 292, 
370, 382, 383 

Fleets of New Spain and of 
Tierra Firme, their origin, 1 1 

Flemings accompany Father 
Martinez to Florida, 271 

Flores, companion of Father 
Martinez, 271 

Florida, 13, 28, 29, 30, 32, 36, 
45. 49-51. 54, 91. 94, 100, 
102, 106, no— 118, 120, 139, 
140, 142—146, 152, 161, 163, 
217, 221—223, 228, 243, 254, 
259, 262, 263, 266, 291, 299, 
302, 305-307, 310, 312, 314- 
316, 318, 319, 335, 360, 365, 
36S, 369, 371, 412, 414; 
Ribaut 's first expedition re- 



Index 



477 



Florida — Continued 

ported bound for, 3 1 ; Thomas 
Stuckeley's proposed expedi- 
tion to, 37-40; not fit to 
colonise, 49 ; minor expedi- 
tions for, arming in France, 
loi; its occupation by the 
French a menace to Spain, 
103-105, 108; opinion of 
Council of Indies on Philip's 
title to, 107; discovered from 
Hispaniola, 108; reported sale 
of, to the Turk, 109 ; purged of 
heretics and French, 207 ; 
Avil^s describes its wealth, 
213; why not mentioned in 
French treaty with Spain, 
301; to be erected into a 
marquisate, 303; rumours of 
further French designs on, 
316; its importance to Spain, 
320; Fourquevaux's report 
on condition of, 323; Avil6s's 
second visit to, 345; Jesuit 
missionaries remove from 
Havana to, 346; the country 
virtually abandoned, 357 ; 
Portuguese settlements in, 
367 ; Mexican knowledge of 
its geography, 368; condi- 
tion of, at death of Avil^s, 
375-379; reported finding of 
mines in, 378; Avil^s's fond- 
ness for, 383 ; maps of the 
French colonies in, 410 

Cape of, 413 

east coast, proximity to 

path of West India fleets, 13; 
danger of foreign occupancy, 
13, 14; Marquis's explora- 
tion of, 381; Maldonado's 
exploration of, 465 

Indians accompany sec- 



ond Jesuit mission to Florida, 
342 

Keys, 143, 211, 228, 229, 



258, 260, 277, 381, 441 
Straits, 326, 379 



Florin, Jean, see Verrazano 
Foix, M. de, Laudonniere visits, 

185 
Fontanedo, Hernando de Esca- 

lante, 230, 376 
Foreigners, refused maps of West 

Indies, 7 ; excluded from 



visiting West Indies, except 
under licence, 8; informed of 
sailing of treasure fleet, 8 

Fort George Inlet, 453 

Island ,151; block- 
house built at, 297 

Fourquevaux, Raymond de 
Rouer de, x. , 24, 42, 300, 
367, 420; his Depeches, xii. ; 
reports sailing of treasure 
fleets, 8; advises Catherine of 
Philip's sentiments, 114; his 
account of Avil^s's reception 
at Madrid, 292; ignorant of 
French defeat, 300; interview 
with Alba, 300, 301; believes 
Avil^s to be at Santo Domingo, 
301; learns of French defeat, 
303 ; describes reception of 
news at Court, 303; informed 
by Alba of French defeat, 304 ; 
his reply, 305; complains of 
Alava's language, 306; audi- 
ences with Philip, 319, 321; 
interview with Alba, 320; re- 
ports on condition of Florida, 
323; reports finding of gold 
mines and azurite in Florida, 
378; reports on treasure im- 
ported into Spain, 388; his 
report on Avil^s's oath at 
Matanzas, 424; excuse given 
him for the Matanzas mas- 
sacre, 429; his account of 
Pardo's expeditions, 451 

France, 9, 14, 15, 32, 42, 43, 48, 
76, 85, 92, 93, 105, 112, 121, 
127, 128, 163, 166, 169, 176, 
184, 185, 189, 192, 299, 300, 
305, 320, 325, 333, 334, 335; 
her decadence, 29; condition 
at time of Ribaut 's Charlesfort 
settlement, 36 

and the West Indies, she 

envies Spain's success in, 4; 
Avil^s's warns Philip II. 
against her presence there, 1 5 ; 
her aggressions there and 
measures taken by Charles 
V. to prevent them, 18-23; 
Charles warns Philip against 
her presence there, 18 ; her de- 
signs on the Bahama Channel, 
2 1 ; Renard warns Charles V. 
of her designs on West Indies, 



478 



Index 



France — Continued 

22; her reply to Chantone's 
protest against equipping ves- 
sels for, 25; her prohibition 
respecting navigation in, 25; 
Spain protests against her 
grant of licences to visit, 25 

Francis I. and Verrazano, 19 

Franciscans, sail with Las Alas, 
219; at Santa Elena, 382 

Francois, Cape, 32, 33 

Jean, 170, 172, 175, 176 

French ambassador, see Four- 
qtievaux 

Cape, 32 

indignation at Florida 



defeat and massacre, 317; 
petitions to the King, 318 

occupation of Florida a 



menace to the treasure fleets, 
103; and to the Indies, 104, 
105; informed of Spanish 
preparations, 109; attitude 
at Bayonne, 112 

pilots secretly visit West 



Indies, 8 ; accompany Stucke- 
ley's expedition, 37 ; their at- 
tempted escape, 39 

pirates, depredations of. 



9, 22, 26 

vessels captured at Fort 



Caroline, 420 
Frenchmen left in Florida by 

Gourgues, 334 
Fripp's Inlet, 401 



G 



Gaffarel, Paul, his Histoire de la 
Floride Frangaise, xi 

Galicia, 149 

Gallego, Gonzalo de, returns 
from Santa Lucia, 224 

Gandia, Duke of, 266; see Bor- 
gia, Francisco 

College of, 269, 270 

Garcilaso de la Vega, his 
anecdote of the Florida In- 
dians in Spain, 291 

Garonne, 34, 395, 398 

Garumna, 395 

Geographical knowledge of Flor- 
ida, 368 

George, Lake, 84, 391, 411, 412 

Georgia, 397, 409; gold mines 



of, 85; Boyano in the moun- 
tains of, 284; Pardo in up- 
country of, 447 

Georgia, neuva, 460 

Georgia, west, 403 

Germans with Ribaut's second 
expedition, 198 

Gijon, 132, 149, 219 

Gilbert's Bar, 217, 224, 435 

Gironda, 395 

Gironde, 34, 395, 396, 398, 413 

Gold and silver, importation of, 
5, 6, 388; smuggling of, 126 

Gold mine, reported finding of, 
378 

Gomez, Brother Gabriel, accom- 
panies Father Segura to Flor- 
ida, 341; and to Chesapeake 
Bay, 360; killed by the 
natives, 364 

Ruy, Prince of Eboli, on 

Spanish diplomatic methods, 
321 

Gomez's expedition postponed 
owing to Spanish and Portu- 
guese rivalries, 17 

Gonzales, Vincente, in Chesa- 
peake Bay, 459 

Gonzalo, Vincente, accompanies 
Father Rogel to the Bay of 
Santa Maria, 366; possibly 
accompanied the Marques ex- 
pedition, 381 

Gourgues, Dominique de, 342; 
his Florida expedition, 324- 
335; his birthplace and re- 
ligion, 324; preparations to 
attack Florida, 324; Spanish 
knowledge of, 324; sets sail, 
325; lands at Tacatacuru, 
326; makes friends with 
natives, 327; captures block- 
houses on St. John's River, 
328-331; his capture of San 
Mateo, 331-333; hangs the 
captured Spaniards, 333; re- 
turns to France, 334; Philip 
notified of Spanish defeat, 
335; Spanish protests and 
Catherine's reply, 335; recog- 
nition by France, 336; Las 
Alas's account cf his capture 
of San Mateo, 454-457 

Ogier, assists his brother 

Dominique, 325 



Index 



479 



Grajalas, Francisco Lop^z de 
Mendoza, 265, 421; chaplain 
in Aviles 's first Florida expedi- 
tion, 149; reaches Dominica, 
150; at Puerto Rico, 151, 152; 
at the founding of St. Augus- 
tine, 160; receives Aviles on 
his return from Fort Caroline, 
188, 189; rescues condemned 
French prisoners, 193; at- 
tempts to leave Santa Lucia, 
240; named vicar, 256; inter- 
cedes for mutineers, 293; 
mentions scarcity of writing 
paper in colony, 294; his 
account of Aviles 's oath at 
Matanzas, 422 

Granada, 121, 364 

Grande, 34, 395, 398 

Grandis, 395 

Granvelle, Antoine Perrenot, 
Cardinal de, his instructions 
to prevent French undertak- 
ings in the Indies, 19; warns 
Philip against French in Flor- 
ida, 104 

Great Tennessee River, 447 

Guale, 242, 244, 360; Manrique 
de Rojas at, 46; reported 
French fort at, 226; French- 
men escape to, 245, 246; 
Avil^s's first expedition to, 
245-247 ; returns to, 249, 250; 
he plans visit to, 256; Las 
Alas in charge of, 261 ; Aviles 
visits, 262; fort at, 289; 
Jesuit missionaries sent to, 
344, 345, 347; where found, 
347 ; Father Alamo replaced 
by Father Quiros, 349; epi- 
demic at, 349; Jesuit mission 
withdrawn, 353 

Indians, human sacri- 
fice, 246, 264 

Island, 348 



Gualequeni, barra de, 453 

Gualiquini, 453 

Guatari, 276, 447; Pardo erects 

blockhouse at, 296; its fate, 

296, 297 
Guatariatiqui, 447, 450 
Guatary, 447 
Guavaca-Esqui, 448 
Gueza, 445 
Guinea, 143 



Guiomae, 275, 445, 447 

Guiomaer, 445 

Guiomaez, 445 

Guises said to have betrayed the 

French Protestant colony in 

Florida, 299 
Gulf of Mexico, 59, 143, 229; 

infested with pirates, 10; 

fleet of New Spain for the, 1 1 
Gulf Stream, 217, 366 
Gutierrez, Juan, accompanies 

Las Alas to Spain, 357 
Guzman, Juan Tello de, ap- 
pointee of Casa de Contra- 

tacion, 123 



H 



Hais, Jean de, 177 

Hartamua, 129 

Havana, 80, 161, 163, 212, 222— 
224, 228, 238—240, 242, 244, 
252-255, 259, 260, 273, 276^ 
277. 289, 323, 341, 360, 
366, 372-375, 377, 463; at- 
tacked by French pirates, 9; 
sacked by Jacques de Soria, 
22; Ribaut's instructions to 
seize, 96 ; Captain Barreda 
in charge of harbour, 281; 
Ribaut's intention to seize, 
304; plan to found Jesuit 
college at, 344; its failure, 
346; Governor of, captured 
by Fort Caroline mutineers ^ 
409 

Havre de Grace, 25, 39, 96 

Hawkins, John, 409, 410, 421;. 
visits Fort Caroline, 88, 89; 
his fleet, 89; offers to take 
colonists to France, 91; re- 
lieves the colony, 91, 92; 
commissioned by Laudon- 
niere to sell cargoes captured 
by the French, 92, 179; 
leaves hostages, 92; their 
fate, 177; ship bought from 
him abandoned, 184 ; fear of a 
descent on Florida by, 356; 
description of "Riviere de 
Mai," 389 

Helley's Keys, 449 

Hennquez, Miguel, at St. Au- 
gustine, 263; his quarrel with 
the Governor, 284; Aviles 



48o 



Index 



Henriquez — Continued 

takes him prisoner to San 
Felipe, 284 

Henry II., 330 

Hercules, Mountains of, 116, 117 

Hevia, Diego de, his death, 255 

Hillsborough Bay, 449 

River, 432 

Hilton Head, 440 

Hinestrosa, Juan de, receives 
Avilds at Havana, 220; Aviles 
at his house, 223; relieves 
Santa Lucia, 239; assists 
Aviles with money, 254; 
Father Rogel's letter to, 350 

Hispaniola, 219, 244, 301; com- 
merce of, exposed to piracies, 
10; negro population of, 14; 
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon dies 
at, 50; Ribaut's instructions 
to free negroes of, 96; French 
colony in Florida a menace to, 
103 ; Florida discovered from, 
108; the San Pelayo sails for, 
163; Father Rogel at, 273; 
Avilds at, 375 

Holland cartographers and the 
rivers named by Ribaut, 34 

Honduras, 244; commerce with 
West Indies, 10; negro popu- 
lation of, 14; Ribaut's pur- 
pose to threaten, 96 

Hospogahe, 464, 465 

Houstaqua, 76 

Hoya, 352, 444 

Humilde, 395 

Hutchinson's Island, 216, 433 

Hysweestake River, 432 



lacan, 459 

laruas of the Timuquanans, 63 

India, 16 

Indian Inlet, 216 

Lagoon, changes in, 433, 



435 



method of recovering 
gold, 84 

names, Spanish corrup- 



tion of, 231 

River, 59, 216, 435, 446; 



identified with the Rio de 
Ays, 432 
River Inlet, 435 



use of tobacco, 90 



Indians, rapid spread of news 
among the, 247 

see Caloosas, Guale, 

Santa Elena, Timuquanans, 
etc. 

Indios Costas, 442 

Inquisition informs Aviles of 
presence of ' ' Lutherans ' ' in 
his fleet, 163 

in Flanders, Aviles to 

command fleet to plant the, 
292 

loannis Ponce, Sinus, 412 

Iracana, 397 

Isa, 445 

Isabella, the, 53, 76 

Isabella of Savoy, married to 
Philip II., 24; replaces him 
at the Bayonne conference, 
106; accompanied by the 
Duke of Alba, no; informs 
Catherine of Philip's senti- 
ments, 114; Catherine de- 
clares her innocence to, 300; 
fears breach between France 
and Spain, 301; informs 
Catherine of her fears and 
Philip's sentiments, 319 

Isle of Wight, 96 

Is, Rio de, 432 

Issa, 445 



Jacan, 459 

Jagaya, 445 

Jamaica, 81, 82, 103; Governor 
of, captured by Fort Caro- 
line mutineers, 409 

James River, 464 

Jesuits to accompany Aviles, 
142; sail with Las Alas, 219; 
origin of the Order, 265; first 
mission to Florida and Amer- 
ica, 266-273; mission to San 
Antonio, 277, 345; toTegesta, 
282; second Florida mission, 
341; to Guale, 344; mission 
withdrawn, 353; to Virginia, 
360-366; first mission to 
Mexico, 373 

Jesiis of Lubeck, the, 89 

Jews prohibited in Avil6s's 
Florida colony, 143 

Joara, 446, 450, 451 



Index 



481 



John of Portugal, his distrust of 
Spanish discovery, 16, 17 

Jordan, River, 34, 395, 439 

Juada, 275, 284, 294, 296, 443, 
446, 448, 450, 451 

Juana, Dona, Regent of Spain, 

23 
Jupiter Inlet, 217, 435 
JykUl Island, 453 
Sound, 397 



Labazares, Guido de, in Florida, 
108 

La Caille accompanies Vasseur's 
expedition up the St. John's, 
76; sent to Aviles, 202 

La Carrera, Brother Juan de la, 
accompanies Father Segura 
to Florida, 341; appointed to 
Santa Elena, 347 

Lachere, exiled from Charles- 
fort, 41; his rescue, 42; his 
fate, 43 

La Grange, Captain, 165 

Lague, Fran9ois, left in charge of 
Gourgues's ships, 327 

Lameco, 286, 451 

Landes, 324 

La Parra, Juan de, his treat- 
ment by Osorio, 220, 221; his 
ship taken by Aviles, 222 

La Popelinidre's account of the 
treatment of Jean Ribaut's 
body, 427 

Laredo, Aviles at, 128, 130 

La Rocheferriere, accompanies 
Laudonniere, 52 

La Rochelle, 122, 185, 322, 334, 
420 

La Roquette, 79 

Larroque, Ph. Tamizey de, and 
the authorship of La Reprise 
de la Floride, 329 

Las Alas, Esteban de, 155, 371, 
372; his fleet, 148, 149; in- 
structions, 151; appointed 
royal accountant of Florida, 
160; expected at Havana, 
163; sails for Florida, 218- 
220; reaches Havana, 223; 
accompanies Aviles to Carlos, 
228; returns to Havana, 238; 
and St. Augustine, 242; ac- 



companies Aviles to Guale, 
245; to Santa Elena, 247; at 
San Felipe, 248; ordered to 
kill French interpreter, 250; 
relief sent him, 254; in charge 
at Orista and Guale, 261; 
writes to Pardo, 276; ap- 
pointed Lieutenant during 
absence of Aviles, 284; sends 
Boyano on expedition, 285; 
at San Felipe, 294; builds 
blockhouses and relieves San 
Mateo, 297; quiets Indian 
revolt at San Felipe, 352; 
help sent him from Spain, 
salary unpaid, 356; abandons 
Florida and returns to Spain, 
357' 35S; remains in Spain, 
371; sails for Florida, 375; 
married to Catalina Menendez 
de Aviles, 384; his account of 
Gourgues's attack on San 
Mateo, 454-457 
La Salle's Texas colony, 335 
Laudonniere, Rene de, 390, 393, 
399, 400, 404—406, 408, 409, 
412—415, 420, 421; accom- 
panies Ribaut's first Flor- 
ida expedition, 3 1 ; his ex- 
pedition to Florida, 51-58, 
75-185; assisted by Co- 
ligny, 52; his colonists, 52; 
his fleet, 53; religion of colo- 
nists, 53 ; ordered to respect 
Spanish rights, 53; sails, 54; 
makes land near St. Augus- 
tine, visits St. John's River, 
54: received by Saturiba, 54; 
selects site for settlement; 
57; erects Fort Caroline, 57, 
58; sends Ottigny to treat 
with Thimogoa, 75; sends 
Vasseur up the St. John's, 75; 
his treatment of Saturiba, 77, 
78; sends Arlac to Outina, 78; 
his treatment of the settlers, 
78; attempt to kill him, 79; 
the September revolt, 79, 80; 
the November mutiny, 80- 
83; expeditions to Port 
Royal, the St. John's, Outina, 
84; famine, 85-88; prepares 
to abandon the country, 86- 
88; holds Outina for food, 
87; Hawkins's visit, 88-92; 



482 



Index 



Laudonniere — Continued 

commissions Hawkins to sell 
captured cargoes, 92; arrival 
of Ribaut with charges against 
him, 97, 98; his excuses, 98, 
99; report of piracies com- 
mitted by his colony reaches 
Spain, 102; opposes Ribaut's 
plans, 164; condition of his 
garrison, 165; prepares for 
Spanish attack on Fort Caro- 
line, 166, 167; the attack, 

172, 173; his escape, 175, 181, 
182, 184; reaches Moulins, 
185; Aviles unaware he has 
left Florida, 226; ship left by 
him in Florida, 241; at Mou- 
lins, 314; his reception, 315; 
offers his services to Spain, 
317; at French Court, 336; 
his story of the November 
mutineers, 409 

Laudonniere 's interpreter, 314; 
becomes Alava's spy at Moul- 
ins, 315, 316 

La Vandera, Juan de, 355; ac- 
companies Pardo's second ex- 
pedition, description of South 
Carolina, 295; commands at 
San Felipe, his effort to relieve 
1^,352,357: his treatment of 
the colonists, 377 

La Vigne, M. de, 167 

Le Breton, Christophe, 424, 426 

Le Challeux, his idea of an 
alligator, 76; describes colo- 
nists of third expedition, 95; 
escapes from Fort Caroline, 

173, 174, 183, 184; account of 
Spanish cruelty, 176; account 
of scouting party, 195; his 
Discours, 414; his account of 
Avil^s's oath at Matanzas, 
424; of Ribaut's death, 425 

Le Clerc, Jacques, his depreda- 
tions, 50, see Pie de Palo 

Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques, 
33, 409, 412, 413, 421 ; accom- 
panies Laudonniere, 52; de- 
scribes the Timuquanans, 59; 
escapes from Fort Caroline, 

174, 181, 182; account of the 
second Matanzas massacre, 
200-203; of Aviles 's oath at 
Matanzas, 423 



Leon, Bay of Ponce de, Ribaut 
to fortify the, 96 ; Avil6s pro- 
poses to fortify the, 212, 226; 
Chatham Bay, 231 

Juan Ponce de, 108, 152 

Lescarbot's complaint of the 
Holland cartographers, 34; 
account of the treatment of 
Jean Ribaut's body, 427 

Libourne, 399 

Licences, French, to go to the 
Indies, 25 

Ligeris, 395 

Limoges, S^bastien de I'Aubes- 
pine, Bishop of, French am- 
bassador in Spain, 28 

Linares, Brother Pedro, accom- 
panies Father Segura to Flor- 
ida, 341; and to Chesapeake 
Bay, 360; killed by the 
natives, 364 

Lisbon, 301 

Little Briton, the, 53 

Little Lake George, 62 

Tennessee River, 447 

Llanes, 383 

Lobo, Father, 270 

Loire, 34, 395, 397, 416 

Longitude, instrument for meas- 
uring, invented by Aviles, 382 

Lorraine, Cardinal of, reply to 
Spanish protests, 25 

Lucayan Islands, 81 

Luis, Don, see Velasco, Luis de 

Luna y Arellano, Tristan de, 
266, 452; his companions 
consulted on fitness of Florida 
for colonisation, 49 

Lutheran interpreter at Guale, 
245 ; his fate, 250 

Lyons, 388 

• banks notified of arrival 

of Spanish treasure fleets, 8 



M 



Machiaca, 414 

Macoya, 431 

ally of Saturiba, 258, 

277, 280, 282 

Madeira, rumoured English at- 
tack on, 9; Montluc's attack 
on, 263, 316 

Madre de Dios del Jacan, baya 
de, 459 



Index 



483 



Madrid. 290, 291, 300 

Magnum, 395 

Mai, Riviere de, where found, 
389; identified with various 
rivers, 390-392; with the St. 
John's, 392, 393; rivers be- 
tween it and Port Royal, 394- 

399 
Maij, 395, 411 

Maillard, Captain, rescues fugi- 
tives from Fort CaroHne, 184 
Malabar, Cape, 436 
Maldonado, Juan, report on 

Florida coast, 465 
Malica, 412 
Malta, 146, 303 
Maps: 

Abbeville, Sanson d', 1656, 
"Le Nouveau Mexique et la 
Floride," 408, 416, 450 
1679, "Le Nou- 
veau Mexique et la Floride," 
408, 416, 442, 450 
Agnese, Baptista, Venetian 

Atlas of 1554, 418 
Albert and Lottier, 1784, "A 
New and Correct Map of 
North America with the 
West India Islands," 409 
Allard, Carel, 1696, "Virginiag 
partis australis, et Floridae 
partis orientalis 
nova descriptio," 416 
Andrews, John, 1777, "A 
New Map of the British 
Colonies in North America," 
393. 434- 442 
Anonymous, 1595 - 1600, 

"Mapa de la Florida y 
Laguna de Maimi . . ." 

433. 435. 444, 450; de- 
scription and date, 464-466 

1760, "A new and 

accurate map of the pro- 
vince of Georgia in North 
America," 391 

Bellin, Nicolas, 1744, "Carte 
des costes de la Floride 
Franfaise," 392, 397, 398, 
402 

1764, "Carte 

reduite des Costes de la 
Louisiane et de la Floride," 

434, 436 

Bleau, Guillaume, 1644, "Vir- 



ginias partis australis, et 

Floridag partis orientalis, 

. nova descriptio," 

415 

1644, "Insulas 



Americanae in Oceano Sep- 
tentrionalis . . .,"435 
Joannes, 1662, "Vir- 



ginias partis australis, et 

Floridae partis orientalis 

. . . novadescriptio,"4i6 
Brahm, John Grear de, 1772, 

"The Ancient Tegesta 

• • .," 442 
Gary, Jno., 1783, "The West 

Indies," 393, 438, 442, 450 
Chatelain, H. A., 1719, "Carte 

contenant le Royaume du 

Mexique et de la Floride," 

408 
Covens et Mortier, 1757, 

"Archipelague du Mexique 

. . . ," 436, 442 
Darby, William, 1821, "Map 

of Florida," 393 
Desceliers, Pierre, Henry II., 

map of 1546, 418 

Mapof 1550,418 

Des Liens, Nicolas, 1566, Map 

of North America, 418 
Dudley, Robert, 1630, "La 

Florida," 416 
Du Val, P., 1665, "La Floride 

Franfoise . . .," 408, 

416 
Fairbanks, George R., 1858, 

"Map of Florida, 1565," 

392, 406 
Fer, Nicolas de, 1718, "Partie 

M^ridionale de la Riviere 

Mississippi," 417 
Gaffarel, Paul, 1875, "Carte 

de la Floride Franfaise," 

392, 397, 398 
Gatschet, Albert S., 1884, 

"The Linguistic Families of 

the Gulf States," 409 
Homann, Johann Baptista, 

1763, "Amplissima regionis 

Mississipi seu Provincias 

Ludovicianfe," 390, 396, 

398, 438 
1763, 

"Regni Mexicani seu Novae 

Hispanias," 409, 438, 442 



484 



Index 



Maps — Continued 

Homann, Johaim Baptista, 
1765," Totius Americce Sep- 
tentrionalis et Meridion- 
alis," 442 
Hondius, Henricus, 1633, 
"Virginise item et Floridae 
Nova Descriptio," 

415 
Isle, Guillaume de 1', 1703, 

"Carte du Mexique et de la 

Floride," 408, 417 
1718, "Carte et 

Cours du Mississipi . . . , " 

390, 396, 397, 437 

1722, "Carte 



du Mexique et de la Flori- 
de," 408 

1730, "Amer- 



ique Septentrionale," 417 

1750, "Carta 



Geografica della Florida nell ' 
America Settentrionale," 
408 
Jansson, Joannes, 1642, "Vir- 
giniae partis australis, et 
Floridae partis orientalis 

. . .," 415 
1653, "America 

Septentrionalis," 434, 442 
JeflEerys, Thomas, 1769, "The 

Bay of Espiritu Santo, 

East Florida," 450 
1769, "East 

Florida . . ."393,435,450 
1775, "The 



Peninsula and Gulf of Flor- 
ida . . .," 434, 442 
Keulen, Johannes, 1735, "Pas 
Kaart van West Indien," 

417 

La Cosa, Juan de, 1500, Map 
of America, 7 

Laet, Jean de, 1640, "Florida 
et Regiones Vicinae," 408, 
416, 433, 442, 450 

Laurie and Whittle, 1784, 
"West Indies," 436 

Le Moyne de Morgues, Jac- 
ques, 1 591, "Florida Ameri- 
canae Provinciae Recens and 
exactissima descriptio," 
231. 391. 394, 398, 400, 
414-417. 437- 440; the 
map described, 410-413 



Lescarbot, Marc, 161 1, "Fig- 
ure et description de la terre 
reconvie et habitee par les 
Franfois en la Floride et 
aude9a . . .," 408, 416 

Lopez, Tomas, 1783, "Piano 
de la Ciudad y Puerto de 
San Agustin de la Florida," 

434 
Lotter, Albert Matthieu, 1720, 

"Carte Nouvelle de I'Amer- 

ique Angloise," 442 
George Frederic, 1784, 

' ' A New and Correct Map of 

North America . . .," 

434, 436 
MaioUo, Vesconte, 1527, Map 

of America, 212 
Martin, Benjamin, 1755-56, 

"A Map of the British 

and French Settlements in 

North America," (second 

part), 408 
Martinez, Fernando, 1765, 

"Descripcion . . . de 

la parte que los Espanoles 

poseen . . . en . . . 

la Florida," 434, 436, 438, 

442 
Mentelle et Chanlaire, 1798, 

"Carte de la Floride et de la 

Georgie," 436 
Mercator, Gerard, 1606, "Vir- 

ginise item et Floridas . . . 

nova descriptio," 391, 412, 

416,417; the map described 

414, 415 
Mexia, Albaro, 1605, "Der- 

rotero util y provechoso 
el qual reza desde 

la ciudad de San Agustin 

hasta la varra de Aiz," 195, 

433, 435 
Moll, Herman, 1710-1715, 
"A Map of the West Indies 
or the Islands of America in 
the South Sea . . .," 

391 

Montanus, Arnoldus, 1671, 
"Virginiae partis australis, 
et FloridjE partis orientalis, 
. . . nova descriptio," 416 

Munster, Sebastian, 1540, 
"Novas Insulas," 212, 411, 
418 



Index 



485 



Maps — Continued 

Olives, Domingo, 1568, Map 
of England, 129 

Parkman, Francis, 1893, 
"Florida, 1565," 393, 409 

Portuguese Portolano, 1514- 
1520, 417 

Pownall, 1783, "A New Map 
of North America with the 
West India Islands," 409, 
434, 436 

Ptolemy, 1540, "Novae In- 
sulae," 212, 411, 418 

Purcell, Joseph, 1792, "A 
Map of the States of Vir- 
ginia . . . comprehend- 
ing . . . East and West 
Florida," 434, 438 

Renier and Ottens, 1730, "In- 
sulae AmericanEe . . ., " 
408, 442, 450 

Reynolds, Charles B., 18^3, 
Map of Portion of Florida 
Coast, 406 

Ribero, Diego, 1529, "Carta 
universal . . ., " 417 

Robinson, G. G., and J., "The 
West Indies," 393 

Romans, Bernard, 1776, "A 
General Map of the South- 
em British Colonies in 
America," 409, 442 

1776, "The 

Seat of War in the South 
British Colonies," 434 

Ruscelli, Girolamo, Map of 
1561, 418 

Senex and Maxwell, 17 10, 
"North America," 408 

Senex, John, 1719, "A Map 
of Louisiana and the River 
Mississipi," 437 

Seutter, Matthaeus, 1725- 
1760, "NovusOrbis . . .," 
442 

1740 -1760, 

"Mapa Geographica Regi- 
onem Mexicanam et Flori- 
dam . . .," 408, 438, 442 

Speed, John, 1676, "A New 
Description of Carolina," 

417 
Thevet, Andre, i575,"LeNou- 

veau Monde . . .,"412 
Ulpius Globe of 1542, 418 



Valk, Gerard, and Schenk, 
Peter, 17 10, "Virginire par- 
tis australis, et Floridse 
partis orient alis, 
nova descriptio," 416 

Visscher, Nicolaus, 1680, "In- 
sulae Americanag in Oceano 
Septentrionali," 442, 450 

Walsh, John, 1798, "Tabvla 

maximas partis 

Americas Mediae . . . , " 

434 
Wells, Edward, 1701, "A 
New Map of North Amer- 
ica," 442 
White, John, see With 
With, John, 1585, "Map of 
southern part of the At- 
lantic coast of North 
America," . . . ,"; map 
described, 413 
Maps and charts of the West In- 
dies, supply to foreigners for- 
bidden, 6, 7 ; publication of, 
suppressed, 7 
Dutch, French and Eng- 
lish, Le Moyne's influence on, 
412 

Spanish, Ribaut's possi- 



ble use of, 45 ; used by Le 
Moyne, 412 

of the French Colonies 



in Florida and South Carolina, 
410 

Margarita plundered by Jacques 
de Soria, 22 

Marques, Alonzo Men^ndes, 
hostage at Guale, 247; where 
he remains, 250, 262 

Pedro Men^ndez, ap- 
pointed factor, 160; accom- 
panies Las Alas's fleet, 218, 
219; separated in storm, and 
reaches Havana, 220; sale of 
his prize, 222 ; sails for Spain, 
2 '33; returns to Florida and 
accompanies Avil^s to San 
Antonio, 277; at St. Augus- 
tine, 294; leaves for San 
Felipe, 294; orders death of 
Caloosa chief, 346; quiets 
Indian revolt at San Felipe, 
352; salary unpaid, 356; 
leaves San Felipe for Havana, 
357; named Lieutenant-Gov- 



486 



Index 



Marques — Continued 

ernor of Cuba, 357 ; returns to 
San Mateo, 359; in charge of 
Florida, 375; exploration of 
the coast, 381, 382; Avil^s 
bequeaths Panuco conquest 
to, 384 

— Rio del, 453 

Marranos prohibited in Avil^s's 
Florida colony, 143 

Martinez, Father Pedro, sent to 
Florida, 266; early training, 
267; admitted to the Society 
of Jesus, 268; his austerities, 
268; sent to Oran, 269; re- 
turns to Spain, 269; sails for 
Florida with his two com- 
panions, 270; is abandoned 
on Florida coast, 271 ; reaches 
the island of Tacatacuru, 272 ; 
his death, 272, 326; punish- 
ment of his murderer ordered, 
290; other Jesuits not dis- 
couraged by his fate, 341 

Martires, Islas de los, 441 

Martyr Islands, 83, 440; Ribaut 
to fortify the, 96 

Mary of England, Queen, Avil^s 
attends her marriage, 126; 
she sends Philip assistance, 
129; her liking for Aviles, 140 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew 
postponed, 113 

Masura River, 449 

Matanjas, 195, 196 

Matanzas, Cuba, 79, 80, 222 

Matanzas Inlet, Florida, visited 
by Manrique de Rojas, 46; 
part of Ribaut 's fleet wrecked 
near, 190; balance of his fleet 
wrecked near, 195, 201; inlet 
south of, 196; changes in 
coast near, 435 

• — massacres, the first and 

second, 190-203; opinions as 
to, 103-107; Spanish Govern- 
ment's excuse for, 205, 305, 
429; French indignation at, 
317; widows and orphans 
petition the King, 318; 
Memyn's account of, 420; the 
oath of Aviles, 421-425 

— . River, 195, 196, 289, 



290, 435 
Mathiaca, 414 



Mauvilia, 291 

Maximilian, Regent of Spain,i22 

Mayaca, 431 

Maya, Diego de, see Amaya 

Mayaimi, laguna de, 441 

Lake, 411, 441 

Mayajuaca, 431 
Maymi, Lake, 258, 263 
Mayport Peninsula, blockhouse 

built at, 297 
May, River of, 32, 33, 395, 413- 

415 

May (River, S. C), 398 

Mazariegos, Diego, Governor of 
Cuba, ordered to reconnoitre 
Ribaut 's settlement in Flor- 
ida, 45; dispatches Manrique 
de Rojas, 45 

Medrano, Juan Velez de, settles 
at Ays, 217; at Santa Lucia, 
239; wounded by mutineers, 
240 

Meleneche, 390, 391 

Melona, 412 

Memyn, Jean, captured by 
Aviles, 177; his deposition, 
420; account of Ribaut 's 
death, 426 

Mendez, Brother Juan Bautista, 
accompanies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341, 342; and to 
Chesapeake Bay, 360; sent on 
embassy to Don Luis, 363 ; 
killed by the natives, 364 

Mendoza, Bernardino de, threat 
to English Roman Catholic 
colonists, 206, 207 

Diego de, rescue of his 

fleet, 129 

Grajales, Lop6z de, 



see Grajales 

Louis Sarmiento de, 



Spanish ambassador to Portu- 
gal, 20 
Merds, Gonzalo Solis de, 170, 
237, 242, 259, 265, 290; his 
Memorial, v, vii; reproduces 
the i?^/acw>z of Aviles, viii; is 
copied by Barcia, ix ; its 
reliability, x ; accompanies 
Avilds's first Florida expedi- 
tion, 148; kills Jean Ribaut, 
199; records opinion on the 
Matanzas massacres, 203 ; 
sent to Campeche and New 



Index 



487 



Merds — Continued 

Spain, 223, 239; returns to 
Havana, 254; sails for Spain, 
255; his account of Avil^s's 
oath at Matanzas, 422 

Merchant fleets, exposed to 
piracies, 9-1 1; measures 
taken to protect, 11, 12; 
course taken by, 12 

Mercy, friar of the Order of, 
with Las Alas, 219 

Metacumbe, island of, 440 

Mexico, 212, 259, 368, 443, 458, 
463; first Jesuit mission to, 
373 ; royal revenues from, 387 

City of, 369 

Miami, Lake, 58, 229, 441 

River, 260, 441 

Miranda, Hernando de, accom- 
panies Avil^s's first Florida 
expedition, 148 ; sent to Santo 
Domingo and Havana, 151; 
Treasurer of Florida, 160; 
married to Catalina Men^ndez 
de Avil^s, 148, 384 

Miruelo, bahia de, 448 

Mission, the French Protestants 
and the Indians, 78; Avil^s's 
tribute to, -jg; see Jesuits 

Missoe, 454 

Mobjack Bay, 464 

MoUona, 75, 76 

Moluccas, Portuguese and Span- 
ish disputes concerning the, 
17; path to the, 212, 367 

Mona, 326 

Monardes, Dr. Nicolas, his trea- 
tise on the medicinal plants of 
the West Indies, 379, 380 

Moncada, Sancho de, his esti- 
mate of treasure imported into 
Spain from West Indies, 5 

Montagan, 269 

Montagnei Pallassi, 413 

Mont de Marsan, 324 

Monte de Rey, 138 

Monterey, College of, 342 

Montluc, Blaise de Lasseran- 
Massencome de, and his son 
Pierre's Bayonne expedition, 

lOI 

Pierre de, sacks Madeira, 

263; his preparations, 316; 
his victory inspires French, 
322 



Montmorenci, Anne de, 307 

Moors prohibited in Avil^s's 
Florida colony, 143 

Mosquito Inlet, 190, 195 

River, 46 

Moulins, 185, 301, 306, 307, 
314-316 

Muspa, punta de, 450 

Musquito harbour, 432 

Mutineers from Fort Caroline in 
Avil^s's first Florida expedi- 
tion, 148 

Mutiny, the September, and its 
fate, 79, 80; prisoners sent to 
Spain, 105; the November, 
its depredations and fate, 80- 

83 
Mymy, Captain, his treatment 
of Spanish crews, 322 



N 



Nantes, expedition for the In- 
dies equipped at, 10 1 

Narvaez, Panfilo de, in Florida, 
108 

Nassau Sound, 453 

Navarette, Pedro Fernandez, his 
estimate of treasure imported 
into Spain from West Indies, 5 

Navarre, 215 

Negro population of West In- 
dies, rapid increase, and dan- 
ger attending it, 14, 15; 
Ribaut's instructions to free, 
96 

slaves, on Avil^s's first 

Florida expedition, 143, 145; 
at founding of St. Augustine, 
160 

New Biscay, 335 

Newfoundland, 143, 211, 212, 
246, 259, 291, 367 

New Inlet, 435 

Newport (river), 397 

New Spain, 37, 133, 223, 228, 
243, 244, 253, 254, 259, 301, 
345, 369, 374; fleet of, its or- 
igin , 11; passes near French 
settlement, 114; report of 
Council of, on fitness of Santa 
Elena for colony, 49; on 
Avil^s's Panuco grant, 368; 
royal revenues from, 387 ; 
treasure fleet from, 388 



488 



Index 



Niebla, Count of, 133 

Nieremberg, Father Eusebio, his 
account of Father Martinez, 
268, 270 

Nonibre de Dios, negro popula- 
tion of, 14 

Noriega, Juan Rodriguez de, 
counsels Philip to drive French 
from Florida, 105 

Normandy, Admiral of, 131 

Spanish secret agent 

visits, 20, 23 ; vessels equipped 
for the Indies in, 25, 26, loi 

Normans in Florida, 336 

North America unsettled by 
white men north of Panuco in 
1562, 3 

North Carolina, 446 

North River, 159, i6i, 170 

Northwest passage, 371 ; Avil^s 
informed of, 259; Avil^s's 
theory of, 212, 367; through 
Virginia, 362 

Nouvelle France, 118 

Nova Gallia ,118 

Nova Scotia, 118, 417, 418 

Nuestra Scfiora de la Concepcidn, 
the, 45 

Nunez, Francisco, sent to re- 
lieve San Mateo, 297; sends a 
spy to Gourgues's camp, 331 ; 
notified of Gourgues's ap- 
proach, 332 

Nut grass found in Florida, 379; 
Spanish description of, 380, 
381 

O 

Oatchaqva, 414 

Oathkaqua, 414 

Occoquan, 461, 463 

Ochoa, Martin, 172; his death, 

Ogale, 448 

Ogeechee, 398 

Okeechobee, Lake, 84, 411, 412 

Oklawaha, 62 

Old Bahama Channel, 224 

St. Augustine, founding 

and site of, 159; abandoned, 
252 ; blockhouse at, 289, 297 
TampaBay, 234, 278, 449 



Oliva, Spain, 269 
Olotoraca, Indian chief guides 
Gourgues, 329 



Onatheaqua, 76 

Oran, 269 

Orista, 347, 352, 360, 448; 
French escape from Matan- 
zas massacre to, 201; chief 
of, at war with Guale, 246; 
Avil^s at, 247, 248; Las Alas 
in charge of, 261; where 
found, 348; Jesuit mission to, 
348-353; Indian revolt at, 
352; soldiers quartered at, 

353 

Indians, their customs, 

348, 349 

Orixa, 40 

Osorio, Garcia, governor of 
Cuba, his reception of Avil6s, 
220; imprisons La Parra, 220; 
refuses Avil6s assistance, 221, 
254 ; and seeks his death, 223 ; 
takes Peiialosa's gun, 224; 
encourages Robadan'smutiny, 
281 ; his treatment of Avil^s, 
288 

Ossaba Sound, 401 

Otari, 447 

Otariatiqui, 447, 450 

Otariyatiqui, 447 

Ottare, 447 

Ottigny accompanies Laudon- 
niere, 52; visits Thimogoa, 
75 ; ascends the St. John's, 84; 
fate of his tailor, 182; his 
death, 203 

Outina, his villages, 62; signifi- 
cance of name, 62; Laudon- 
niere hears of , 7 5 ; at war with 
Potauou, 78; relief expedi- 
tion to, 84; and famine at 
Fort Caroline, 86; is held as 
hostage for food, 87, 88; gold 
and pearls obtained from, 
179; and Avil^s, 257 ; his war 
with Saturiba, 294; requested 
to assist San Mateo, 332; ex- 
pedition against, 412 

Overhill settlements, 447 



Pablo Creek, 161, 170 
Pacific, 367, 413 

Straits through Florida 

to the, 259 



Index 



489 



Pacis, F., 412 

Paez, Luys de, 447 

Palican, 289 ; where found, 
station at, 290 

Pallassi, Montagnei, 413 

Pamplona, 270 

Panuco, northern limit of Span- 
ish settlement, 3; Avil^s asks 
licence to settle, 368; report 
of Audiencia of Mexico, 368; 
licence granted, 369; Avil^s 
bequeaths conquest of, to 
Marques, 384 

Paracusi, 62 

Paraguay, 270 

Pardo, Juan, 284, 286, 378, 438; 
sent to San Felipe, 256; 
reaches there, 261; his first 
expedition, 275, 276 ; his 
second expedition, 294-296; 
at Chiaha, 295; constructs 
blockhouses at various points, 
296; fate of his settlements, 
296, 297; date of his first 
expedition, 443; route of his 
first expedition, 444-448; of 
his second expedition, 450- 
452; Fourquevaux's account 

of, 451 
Paris, 317, 334 

Island, 440 

Parkman, Francis, his account 

of the conquest of Florida by 

Aviles, ix, xii; sources, xi 
Patino, Andrds Lopez de, and 

the founding of St. Augustine, 

159 

Paul IV., and the truce of Vau- 
celles, 23 

Paya, Dona, ancestor of Aviles, 
120 

Pearl, the, 96, 99, 175-177 

Pedro, heir of Carlos, 255; ac- 
companies Reynoso to San 
Antonio, 276 

Rio, 449 

Pelayo, Don, 120 

Pefialosa, Diego de, brings as- 
sistance from Santo Domingo, 
223, 224 _ _ 

Diego Dionisio de, and 

the conquest of New Biscay, 

335 
Pensacola, 406 
Peru, 37, 243, 259, 388; French 



pirates capture fleets from, 9; 
sink vessels from, 22 

Perucho, the Ays chief, 258 

Peter Martyr's First Decade, 
descriptive of West Indies, 
suppressed, 7 

Petition to Charles IX., of 
widows and orphans of Flor- 
ida colonists, 318; its recep- 
tion, 318; its description of 
Ribaut's death, 426 

P^tremclaud, 427 

Philip II., warned by Charles V. 
against France in the West In- 
dies, 18; marries Isabella of 
Savoy, 24 ; notified of Ribaut's 
designs on Florida, 28; of the 
colony left there, 44; orders 
its expulsion, 45; learns of 
Ribaut's preparations for sec- 
ond expedition, 102; warned 
against French occupation of 
Florida, 104, 105; of Ribaut's 
second expedition, 106; takes 
Alba's advice, 106; sends 
Acuna to France, 106; his 
title to Florida, 107; instruc- 
tions to Alba at Bayonne, 1 1 1 ; 
notice to Catherine, 113; 
takes Aviles with him to 
England, 126; asiento with 
Aviles to conquer Florida, 
142-145; his excuse for the 
killing of the French prisoners, 
205; commends Aviles, 206; 
motives, 206, 207; his letter 
delivered to Aviles, 256; asks 
for Jesuit missionaries for 
Florida, 266; at Madrid, 290; 
where he receives and rewards 
Aviles, 291, 292; Catherine's 
dependence upon, 299; deter- 
mined to recover Florida, 301 ; 
instructs Alava to inform 
Catherine, 301 ; attributes the 
Florida colony to Coligny, 
303; his object, 304; his in- 
structions to Alava, 306; 
notifies Austria of French 
defeat, 310 ; and England 
also, 311; continues to sus- 
pect French, 316; assured of 
safety of Florida, 317; his 
treatment of Catherine's com- 
plaints, 319; audiences with 



490 



Index 



Philip II. — Continued 

Fourquevaux, 3 1 9-3 2 1 ; his 
final reply, 321; learns of 
loss of San Mateo, 335; 
orders an investigation in Las 
Alas's abandonment of Flor- 
ida, 357 ; his treatment of the 
Indian Luis de Velasco, 360; 
interest in Northwest pas- 
sage, 367 ; his excuses for the 
Matanzas inassacre, 429 

Philippines, 373 

Piankatank River, 464 

Pie de Palo, his depredations, 
50, 458; encounters Aviles, 
128 

Pierria, Albert or Aubert, in 
command at Charlesfort, 35; 
visits Audusta, 40; his harsh 
acts, 41; killed by colonists, 
41 ; fate of his murderers, 44 

Pilot Creek, 405 

Pilots, Portuguese, in Villafane's 
Florida expedition, 17 

Spanish, stolen by Em- 
anuel I., of Portugal, 17 

Piracies, statutes restricting, 
demanded of England, 10; 
committed by Laudonniere's 
colony, 79-80, 80-83, 92; re- 
port of, reaches Spain, 102 

Pirates, Aviles goes against the 
West India, 222 

French, plunder treasure 

fleets, 9 ; and merchantmen, 
10; arming for Florida, loi; 
bribe French judges, 10 1 

Spanish instructions as 



to treatment of, 124 

Pius v., his letter to Aviles, 370 

Plymouth, Ribaut's second ex- 
pedition at, 102 

Point Sable, 229 

Port Royal, 347, 395, 398, 400, 
405,412,415; Ribaut's settle- 
ment at, 34, 35, 40-44; its 
danger to Spanish commerce, 
103; Laudonniere's expedi- 
tion to, 84; reported French 
fort in vicinity of, 226; rivers 
between it and the ' ' Riviere 
de Mai," 394-399; descrip- 
tion of, 399; location, 400; 
coast to south of it, 400; 
north of it, 401; identifica- 



tion, 401-403; San Felipe In 
neighborhood of, 440 
Sound, 401—403, 



411 

Portugal, 143, 201; envious of 
Spain's success in the West 
Indies, 4 ; bribes Spanish 
pilots, 8 

Princess of. Regent of 

Spain, 131 

Portuguese distrust of Spanish 
discovery, 16-18 

incite negro chiefs to at- 
tack Gourgues, 325; supposed 
to assist Aviles in Florida, 
316; in attack on Fort Caro- 
line, 420 

map-makers and Terre 



des Bretons, 118 

pilots in Villafane's ex- 



pedition to Florida, 18; one 
accompanies Ribaut's first 
Florida expedition, 3 1 ; and 
Laudonniere, 53 ; and Ribaut's 
second expedition, 95 

settlements in Florida, 



Aviles's account of, 367 

trader wrecked near To- 



cobaga, 279 

Portus Regalis, 395, 404, 440 

Posada, Juan de, 465 

Potauou, 75; his country, 75; 
at war with Outina, 78 

Potomac River, 212, 462, 464 

Protestant books captxired at 
Fort Caroline, 179 

mission among Florida 

Indians, 79 

Protestants in Laudonniere's ex- 
pedition, 53 ; in Ribaut's sec- 
ond expedition, 95 ; in Aviles's 
first Florida expedition, their 
fate, 163 

Puerto de Cavallos, negro popu- 
lation of, 14 

Puerto de Plata, 244, 374 

Puerto Rico, 265, 273, 288, 326, 
342,420; its commerce exposed 
to piracy, 10; perils to fleet 
returning to, 13 ; negro popula- 
tion of, 14; Ribaut's designs 
on, 96; Avil6s at, 150, 263; 
Mendoza at, 151; instructions 
left for Las Alas at, 151; 
governor of, 152 ; desertions 



Index 



491 



Puerto Rico — Continued 

at, 152; ships sent to, 163; 
horses shipped at, 164; Las 
Alas reaches, 219; vessels for, 
256; defence of, 262 

Pulgar, Pedro Fernandez de, his 
Historia general de la Florida, 
xiii-xv; his Historia General 
de las Indias Occidentales, xiii 

Q 

Quadra, Alvarez de, Bishop of 
Aquila, Spanish ambassador 
to England, his interview with 
Stuckeley , 3 7 ; suspects his 
object, 38 

Quasimodo, 331 

Quatariaatiqui, 447 

Quihanaqui, 446 

Quinahaqui, 446 

Quiros, Father Luis de, accom- 
panies Father Segura to Flor- 
ida, 341; replaces Father 
Alamo at Guale, 342, 349; 
accompanies Father Segura to 
Chesapeake Bay, 360; his last 
letter, 361, 362; goes on 
embassy to Don Luis, 363; 
his death, 364 

R 

Rando, Pedro de la, order to 
punish his murderer, 290; 
killed at Tacatacuru, 290, 326 

Happahannock, 462, 464 

Recalde, Francisco de, heads 
mutiny at St. Augustine, 240 

Hedondo, Brother Cristobal, ac- 
companies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; and to Chesa- 
peake Bay, 360; killed by the 
natives, 364 

Red town of Creek Indians 
visited by Boyano, 285 

Renard, Simon, Spanish ambas- 
sador to France, warns against 
French designs on West In- 
dies, 22 ; reports Villegaignon's 
seizure of Spanish port in, 23 

Revenues, royal, from the In- 
dies, 387 

Revuelta, 453 

Reynoso, Francisco de, sent to 
Carlos, 263; Father Rogel to 



accompany, 273; at San An- 
tonio, 277; attempts to kill 
him, 277 ; attacks the shamans, 
340; hnal withdrawal from 
San Antonio, 346 
Ribao, Barreta de, 196, 435 
Ribaut, Jacques, accompanies 
third expedition to Florida, 
95; anchors at Fort Caroline, 
99 ; rescues fugitives from 
Fort Caroline, 175, 177; re- 
fuses to surrender ,176; A vil6s 's 
plan to capture, 180, 189; 
sails for France, 184; Aviles 
fears his return, 212; Aviles 
unaware of his departure, 226; 
arrival in France, 300; re- 
ports to Coligny, 300; his 
bearing at Moulins, 301; 
threatens Enveja, 302 ; Alava's 
complaint, 302 ; in secret con- 
ferences at Coligny's house, 
315; Enveja's complaint of 
him, 316 

Jean, 400, 401, 403, 405, 

414, 415, 420; Philip II., 
notified of his preparations 
for Florida, 28; Chantone's 
protest, 28; Philip II. refers 
the matter to the Council of 
the Indies, 29; sails, 30; per- 
sons interested in enterprise, 
3 1 ; rumoured destination, 3 1 ; 
course taken, 32; reaches 
Florida, 32; and St. John's 
River, 33; where he erects 
a column, 34; seeks River 
Jordan, 34; enters Port Royal, 
34; founds Charlesfort, 35; 
returns to France, 35 ; goes to 
England, 36; sees Elizabeth, 
36; aids Stuckeley, 37; to 
deliver Charlesfort to Stuck- 
eley, 39; treachery discov- 
ered and cast into prison, 
39; where he remains, 51; 
and the mutineers at Fort 
Caroline, 83 ; his second ex- 
pedition to Florida, 94-199; 
his instructions, 95; depart- 
ure, 96; reaches Fort Caro- 
line, 97; informs Laud onniere 
of charges against him, 98; 
anchors part of his fleet in the 
river, 99; his preparations 



492 



Index 



Ribaut — Continued 

known to Philip, 102; part of 
his fleet encounters Aviles and 
escapes, 155-158; threatens 
St. Augustine, 160, 161; in- 
formed of Aviles's attack, 
164; plans attack, 164; sets 
sail, 165; at St. Augustine, 
167 ; wreck of one of his ships, 
187; of part of his fleet, 190; 
fate of the survivors, 191-194; 
wreck of balance of his fleet, 
195; fate of the survivors, 
195-203; his surrender and 
death, 198, 199; Aviles's 
opinion of, 200; French 
Catholics accused of betray- 
ing him, 299; Valdes informs 
Court of destruction of his 
fleet, 300; Spanish fears lest 
he avenge Fort Caroline, 303 ; 
Spain's joy at news of his de- 
feat, 303 ; accused of intention 
to seize Havana, 304; acts 
under orders from the King, 
305 ; Catherine's anger at his 
murder, 309; Aviles wrecked 
where he was, 374; the pillar 
set up by, 393, 394; various 
accounts of his death, 425- 
429 

Ris, 374 

Rivers between the "Riviere de 
Mai" and Port Royal, 394- 

399 

Robadan, Pedro de, his mutiny 
and capture, 281 ; Aviles takes 
him to San Felipe, 284; and 
to Spain, 290 

Robert, "Maistre," 78 

Roberval's expedition and Spain 
22 ; his pilot, 122 

Rogel, Father Juan, sent to 
Florida, ,266; becomes a 
Jesuit, 270; sails for Florida 
with Father Martinez, 270; 
separated by a storm, 270; 
reaches Havana, 273; Aviles's 
search for him, 273; accom- 
panies Aviles to San Antonio, 
277; a chapel built for him, 
278; his work there, 339; 
jealousy of the shamans, 340; 
returns to Havana, 341; joins 
Father Segura, 344; sent to 



Santa Elena, 347 ; his account 
of the Crista Indians, 348; 
his work at Orista, 350-352; 
withdraws to Havana, 353; 
reasons for his failure, 353, 
354; his legend of the Vir- 
ginia mission crucifix, 365; 
expedition to relieve the Vir- 
ginia Jesuits, 366; informs 
Aviles ofdeathof Jesuits ,372; 
accompanies Aviles to Axa- 
can, 372; returns with Aviles 
and is wrecked, 373; reaches 
St. Augustine, 374 

Rojas, Alonso de, 277 

Hernando Manrique de, 

24s. 389. . 399-401, 404; 
his expedition in search of 
Ribaut's colony, 45-48; 
reaches Florida, 46; at Santa 
Elena, 46; finds Rufin, whom 
he takes to Cuba, 47, 48; 
finds and destroys Charles- 
fort, 48; and Laudonni^re's 
expedition, 51 

Rojomonte, 389, 405 

Roman Catholics accompany 
Laudonniere, 53; forbidden 
on Ribaut's second expedi- 

1,95 

, Ga., 

- receives news of French 



tion, 95 
Rome, Ga., 447 



defeat in Florida, 313 

Rouen citizens arm vessels to 
plunder the Indies, 25 

Rueda heads mutiny at St. 
Augustine, 241 

Ruffin, Guillaume, 394, 400, 401, 
404; remains at Charlesfort 
and rescued by Manrique de 
Rojas, 47, 48; accompanies 
Aviles to Guale, 245 ; married 
to chief's daughter, 248; be- 
trays French interpreter, 250 

Ruidiaz y Caravia, E., his La 
Florida, su Conquista y Coloni- 
zacion examined, v, vi 



St. Andrew's Sound, 397 

St. Anthony, 227, 239 

St. Augustine, 156, 212, 254, 281, 
287, 289, 290, 341, 372, 376, 
401, 406, 439, 459; Ribaut's 



Index 



49: 



St. Augustine — Continued 

first landfall near, 32,33; Lau- 
donniere at, 54; Avilesat, 154, 
155, 252, 284, 373; founding 
of, 158-160; first site of, 159; 
Bartolome left in charge of, 
169; French ship brought to, 
188; arrival of Aviles from 
capture of Fort Caroline, 1S8, 
189; French prisoners from 
Matanzas sent to, 194; return 
of Aviles to, 194; discontent 
at, 225; supposed western 
waterway to, 226; Aviles 
reaches, 240, 242; mutinies at, 
240, 241, 244, 262, 293, 359; 
Las Alas returns to, 242; 
burning of magazine, 251; 
the site changed, 252, 253; 
Arciniega at, 255; second 
change of site, 256; depend- 
ence of San Felipe upon, 261 ; 
settlers at, 263; Father Marti- 
nez's ship seen from, 270; 
first white child born at, 294; 
Marques at, 294; famine at, 
297; Gourgues's fleet sighted 
from, 326; Father Segura at, 
342; destitution of the set- 
tlement, 343; San Antonio 
garrison transferred to, 346; 
reason for absence of Jesuit 
mission at, 346, 347; condi- 
tion of the settlement, 355, 
3 77' 378; garrison reduced, 
357; English vessels attack, 
374; Drake's attack on, 379 

River of, 390 

St. Catherine's Inlet, 398 

Saint Cler, M. de, 167 

S. George, 460 

St. George's River, 391 

S. Helenae, 395, 396, 398 

St. Helena, Cape, 440 

St. John's River, 256, 287, 398, 
402, 406, 408, 412, 414, 431, 
43 2 ; visited by Ribaut on first 
expedition, t,;}, 34; Manrique 
de Rojas at the, 46; Laudon- 
niere at the, 54; Saturiba's 
village near the, 55; Outina's 
country on the, 62; limit of 
tidal water, 62 ; French as- 
cend the, 75, 84; Ribaut's 
fleet at mouth of the, 155; 



Aviles's attempt to capture 
its entrance, 158; approach to 
Fort Caroline from the, 170; 
its supposed communication 
with Gulf of Mexico, 226; 
expedition up the, 257, 258; 
Father Martinez reaches vi- 
cinity of the, 271 ; second ex- 
pedition up the, 277, 282; Las 
Alas builds two blockhouses 
at the mouth of the, 297; 
Gourgues informed of the 
blockhouses, 327 ; attacks and 
captures them, 328-331 ; iden- 
tified with the "Riviere de 
Mai," 390, 392, 393 

Bluff, 55, 407 



St. Joseph's Bay, 449 
St. Lawrence River, 212 
St. Lucia Island, 435 

Province of, 433 

] — River, 435 

St. Lucie River, 224, 287 

St. Martin River, 449 

St. Mary's River, 392, 396, 397, 

454 

St. Michael, 194 

St. Nicolas, Cape, 81 

St. Phillip's Island, 440 

St. Quentin, Battle of, 129 

St. Sebastian River, 216 ^ 

Saint Sulpice, Jean d' Ebrard 
de, 115; report on treasure 
fleet, 388 

St. Vincent, Cape, 12 

Salamon, the, 89 

Salcedo, Brother Juan, accom- 
panies Father Segura to Flor- 
ida, 341 ; and Father Rogel in 
search of the Virginia Jesuits, 
366 

Salinacana, 397 

Saltilla, 397 

Salvatierra, Brother Pedro Ruiz, 
accompanies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; sent to Guale, 

344 

San Antonio, the, 147 

San Antonio, name given to 
village of Carlos, 239; Aviles 
at, 255, 277, 278, 280; Reyno- 
so at, 276, 277; garrison in- 
creased, 280; Father Rogel 
stationed at, 281, 339; trou- 
ble with the natives, 340, 341; 



494 



Index 



San Antonio — Continued 

one of the three remaining 
garrisons, 343; Jesuit mis- 
sionaries sent to, 345; aban- 
donment of the settlement at, 
346 

Cape, 326 

San Anton, Rio de, 45Q 
San Cristobal, Bahia de, 459 
San Felipe, 286, 287, 296, 343, 
347. 348, 355.. 451; founded, 
248 ; Las Alas in command at, 
248; relief sent, 254; Pardo 
sent to, 256; desertions from, 
260; arrival of Pardo, con- 
dition of settlement, 261; 
Aviles at, 261; Las Alas at, 
261; Aviles sails for Spain 
from, 290; Marques and Las 
Alas at, 294; famine at, 297, 
352; Vandera's efifort to re- 
lieve it, Indian revolt at, 352 ; 
garrison at, reduced, Marques 
at, 357; Aviles reinforces, 
372; condition of settlement, 
375-377; Vandera's govern- 
ment of, 377; where found, 
438-440; Aviles's two visits 
to, 443 
San Juan de Luz, 125, 130, 131 

de Ulua, 125 

Fort, Pardo at, 

276, 294; Boyano in com- 
mand, 276; expedition from, 
285; distance from Chiaha, 
286; reinforced, 296; its fate, 
296, 297 
San Jusepe, Bay of, 226 
San Lucar de Barrameda, 125, 

25s. 270, 342, 371, 388 
San Martin, mines of, 213, 295 
San Mateo, 254, 255, 259, 261, 
281, 283, 287, 289, 334, 342, 

390. 393. 405, 430. 431. 439. 
444, 459; Aviles names Fort 
Caroline, 180; supplies for, 
189, 192 ; burning and relief of, 
194, 213 ; reinforcements from, 
214; suffering and discon- 
tent at, 225; supposed western 
waterway to, 226; uprising at, 
241-243; begins Indian war, 
242; Aviles returns to, 251, 
262; Aguirre at, 256; Villar- 
roel in command at, 257; 



vessel sent to, 277; sup- 
posed waterway communica- 
tion with Tocobaga, 278, 
280; Indian attack on, 297; 
Castellon in command, 297; 
Nunez sent to relieve, 297; 
Gourgues lands near, 326; his 
capture of, 331-333; notified 
of Gourgues's approach by 
Las Alas, 331, 332, reason for 
absence of Jesuit mission at, 
346, 347; Marques at, 359; no 
colonists at, 3 78; Spanish ac- 
count of Gourgues's capture 
of, 454-457 

Rio de, 59, 453 



San Pedro, condition of the gar- 
rison, 356; no colonists at, 
378; where situated, 356, 452- 

454 
San Pelayo, the, 142, 147, 150, 

156, 161, 163, 167, 431 
San Salvador, the, 161, 163, 167, 

431 . 
San Vmcente, Captain, and the 
founding of St. Augustine, 
159; prophesies Aviles's fail- 
ure to take Fort Caroline, 
188; kills Ribaut, 199; deserts 
Aviles, 244; and spreads evil 
reports of Florida, 245, 259 
Sancta Elena, Rio de, 399 
Sandoval, Governor of Belle- 
Isle-en-Mer, 315; Enveja 
complains of, 316; his treat- 
ment of Spanish crews, 322 
Santa Cruz Island, 404 

Rio, 432, 435 

Santa Elena, 256, 262, 275, 
276, 287, 288, 343, 368, 369, 
375. 380, 381, 401-403, 445, 
447. 4.51. 453. 459; Ribaut's 
intention to settle at, 31; 
Manrique de Rojas's expedi- 
tion to, 45-48; reaches there, 
and finds many Indian vil- 
lages, 46; Viceroy of New 
Spain and his council report 
it unfit for a colony, 49; 
escape of members of Jean 
Ribaut's fleet to, 201, 245; 
Aviles and Las Alas at, 247; 
Aviles at, 262, 372; Jesuit 
missionaries appointed to, 
347; epidemic at, 349; con- 



Index 



495 



Santa Elena — Continued 

dition of settlement at, 352, 
375-377; garrison reduced , 
357 ; Vandera's administration 
of, 377; Franciscans at, 382; 
where found, 438-440 ; Aviles's 
two visits to, 443 

Fort (Chiaha, 

Georgia), 286 



Indians, their 
disposition towards French 
and Spaniards, 372 
Santa Helena (river), 398 

Sound, 402, 405 

Santa Lucia, experience of the 
colony at, 224, 225, 239; 
mutiny at, 240; famine at, 
343; its site, 433, 434 

Rio de, 432 

Santa Maria, Bay of, 212, 366; 
expedition to, its fate, 259; 
Jesuit mission to, 360-366; 
Aviles at, 372, 373 ; visited by 
Marques, 381; identified with 
Axacan and Chesapeake Bay, 
459-461 

Fray Domingo de, 

on Dominican missions, 266 
negro population 



of, 14 

Santa Martha plundered by 
French pirates, 22 

Santander, 383 

Santiago, Cabo de, 459 

de Cuba, sacked by 

Jacques de Soria, 2 2 ; Fort 
Caroline mutineers capture 
vessel bound for, 82; French 
prisoners at, released, 322 

Knights of, Aviles ap- 



pointed to the commandery 
of the Holy Cross of Zarza of, 
292 

Pedro de, sent to spy out 



French designs on the West 
Indies, 20; visits French coast 
20; interview with Jacques 
Cartier, 21 
Santo Domingo, 12,81, 219, 220, 
254, 288, 236; Aviles's fleet 
at, 115, 153; Miranda sent to, 
151; Aviles sends ships to, 
1 63 ; women and children 
from Fort Caroline sent to, 
180, 192, 431; assistance 



from, 223; governor of, 244; 
search at, for Father Rogel, 
273; Aviles supposed to be at, 

30' 

Sapello, 397 

Sarabay, 328 

Saravay, 448 

Sarope, Lake, 416 

"Sarrope," Lake, 411, 412 

Sarvauahi, 395 

Sassafras, account of the, 379, 
380 

Satapo, 295, 296, 451 

Saturiba, 288, 326, 412; receives 
Laudonniere, 54; various 
forms of his name, 54; his vil- 
Is-ge, 55. 62; asks assistance 
against Thimogoa, 77; de- 
ceived by Laudonniere, 77, 78; 
San Mateo mutineers incite 
war against, 242; his ally Ma- 
coya, 258; continues war with 
Spaniards 258, 282; his 
interview with Aviles, 283; 
successful campaign against 
Aviles, 284; his war with Ou- 
tina, 294; attacks San Ma- 
teo, 297 ; assists Gourgues, 327 

village of, 353 

Saturn va, 414 

Satvriona, 414 

Sauana, 224 

Sauapa, 447 

Savannah River, 275, 276, 286, 
294, 397-399. 438. 444. 446, 
452 

Sedeno, Father Antonio, ac- 
companies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; sent to Guale, 
345; returns to Havana, 353; 
sent to Mexico and the Philip- 
pines, 373 

Segura, Father Juan Bautista 
de, Rogel awaits him at 
Havana, 341; selected with 
other Jesuits for Florida, 341; 
reaches St. Augustine, 342; 
assists the garrison, 343; 
joined by Father Rogel, 344; 
goes to Havana, 344; and to 
Tegesta, 345 ; plans his Florida 
mission, 346; sends mission- 
aries to Santa Elena and 
Guale, 347; goes to Guale, 
348; his Virginia mission, 



496 



Index 



Segura — Continued 

3 60-3 66 ; sails for Chesapeake 
Bay, 360; reaches Axacan, 
361; establishes the mission, 
363; his death, 364; arrival 
of relief ship and its return to 
Havana, 366; Aviles learns of 
fate of his mission, 372; its 
site, 461-464 

Seine, 34, 395, 396, 454 

Seloy, 54, 158 

Sena, 453, 454 

Sequena, 395, 396, 454 

Sessa, Carlos de, Philip's reply 
to, 133 

Seville, 180, 259, 270, 301, 323 

Archbishop of, 148 

Cardinal of, advice in 

respect to Cartier's third ex- 
pedition, 21 

"Golden Tower" of, 136 



Sharks Head and Tail River, 

435 

Shoulder of A'lutton, the, 96 

Silva, Diego Guzman de, Span- 
ish ambassador to England, 
instructed to notify Eliza- 
beth of expulsion of French 
from Florida, 310; his inter- 
view with her, 311, 312; his 
reference to the death of Jean 
Ribaut, 429 

Silver mines, 295 

of the Cherokees, 

.295 

Sissipahaw, 447 

Skull Creek, 399, 405 

Slave Trade, John Hawkins and 
the, 89; Gourgues's apparent 
purpose the, 325 

Smoky Mountains, 447 

Smuggled treasure imported into 
Spain, 388 

Snake River, 441 

Solameco, 286, 451 

Solis, Brother Gabriel de, ac- 
companies Father Segura to 
Florida, 341; and to Chesa- 
peake Bay, 360; sent on em- 
bassy to Don Luis, 363; 
killed by the natives, 364 

Solis, Dona Maria de, affianced 
to Aviles, 121 

Soloy, fort at, 289 

Somme, 34, 395, 397 



Soria, Jacques de, his piracies in 
the West Indies, 22 

Soto, Hernando de, 108, 275, 
284, 286, 291 

South Carolina, 287 ; maps of 
the French colonies in, 410; 
Pardo in, Vandera's descrip- 
tion of, 295 

Indians, 403 

South Edisto, 398 

South Hillsborough River, 432 

South Sea, 212, 368 

Spain, vii, Lv, xi; 6, 8-10, 12, 15- 
20, 24, 36, 38, 51, 95, 100, 
102, 103, 121, 132—134, 138, 
139, 143. 148, 163, 213, 255, 
256, 259, 262, 282, 284, 287, 
289, 292, 299-301, 316, 318, 

334. 335. 341, 345. 356, 357. 
360, 371, 376, 382, 444; her 
settlements in North America 
in 1562, 3 ; her commerce with 
the West Indies, 4, 5; gold 
and silver imported into, 5, 
388 

Spes, Guerau de, Spanish ambas- 
sador to England, his account 
of Gourgues's return, 334 ; pro- 
tests to Catherine, 335 

Story River, 401 

Stuckeley, Thomas, his expedi- 
tion, 37-40; assisted by 
Ribaut, 37; interview with 
Quadra, 37, 38; designs on 
Florida, 39; discovers Ri- 
baut 's treachery, 39 

Sugar cane, 143 ; planted at San 
Felipe, 376 

Suwali Indians, 446 

Swallotv, the, 89 

Swansea Bay, 185 



Tacatacuru, 396, 452; block- 
house at, 289, 356; Father 
Martinez killed at, 272; chief 
of, punished, 290; Gourgues 
lands at, 326; village of, 353; 
garrison reduced, 357 ; its site, 

452-454 
Tagaya, 445, 447 

Chiquito, 447 

el Chico, 445, 447 

Talbot Island, 59, 328 



Index 



497 



Talimeco, 286 

Talladega County, Alabama, 296 

Tallapoosa River, 295 

Tampa Bay, 229, 278, 287, 450; 

and Tocobaga, 449 
Tanasqui, 295, 451 
Tasqui, 451 
Tasquiqui, where found, 295 

Tegesta, 287; waterway to Lake 
Maymi, 258; deserters from 
San Felipe at, 260; where sit- 
uated, 260; Avil^s at, 282, 
345 ; Brother Francisco re- 
mains with settlement at, 282 ; 
his work at, 340; Spaniards 
driven from, 342, 343; Father 
Segura at, 345; Spanish gar- 
rison finally withdrawn from, 
346; and Ays, 432; its site, 
440-442 _ 

Indians, their customs, 

260; prisoners of Carlos, re- 
turned to their village, 281; 
accompany Avil^s to Spain, 
284 

Tegestas, 58 

Teguesta, 441 

Teneriffe, 122 

Tequesta, 440 

Province of, 433 

Tercera, 290 

Teruel, Spain, 267 

Texas, 335 

Thou, Jacques Auguste de, ac- 
cuses French Catholics of 
betraying Jean Ribaut, 299 

Thimogoa, Laudonnidre hears 
of, 56; signifies "enemy," 56; 
name "Timuqua" derived 
from, 59; visited by Ottigny, 
75; Saturiba goes against, 77 

Tiburon, Cape, 81, 409 

Tierra Firme, commerce with 
West Indies, 10; origin of its 
fleet, 11; French colony in 
Florida a menace to, 103; 
armada of, 133 

Tiger, the, 89 

Timoga, 408, 412 

Timookas, ancient, 409 

Timooquas, 409 

Timuqua, derivation of, 59; 
where found, 407 

Timuquanan Indians, French 
reports of the great age they 
** — 32 



attain. 56; thievishness, 56; 
their country and settlements, 
58, 59; their customs, 60-7 4; 
appearance, 60; tattooing, 60; 
dress, 60; abstemiousness, 61 ; 
honesty, 61; women, 61; 
hermaphrodites, 61; chiefs, 
62; confederacies, 62; gentes, 
63; shamans, 63; their cures, 
64; villages, 64 ; plantings, 65 ; 
storehouses, 65; drink, 66; 
winter occupation, 66; fish- 
ing and hunting, 66, 67 ; coun- 
cils, 67 ; religion, 67 ; human 
sacrifice, 68; witchcraft, 68; 
superstitions, 69 ; marriage 
customs, 69, 70; burial cus- 
toms, 69, 71; mode of fight- 
ing, 71-73, 251, 252 ; shamans 
consulted on war-path, 72; 
treatment of enemy, 73 ; scalp 
ceremony, 73; training of 
boys, 74; industries, 74; ac- 
company Avil^s to Spain, 
284; region inhabited by, lan- 
guage, 407 ; villages, 408 

Toana, 446 

Tobacco pipe used by Indians, 
90, 91 

Tocae, 451 

Tocalques, 295, 451 

Tocar, 451 

Tocax, 451 

Toccoa, 295 

Tocobaga, 62, 234, 287, 296; its 
waterway to San Mateo, 278, 
280; Avil^s's expedition to, 
277-280; garrison left at , 280; 
its fate, 342; where situated, 
448-450 

Indians, burial custom, 

280 

Toco-baja, 448 

Chile, 448 

Tocobogas, River 449 

Tccovaga, 448, 449 

Togabaga, 449 

Toledo, 133, 269, 342 

Archbishop of, 131 

Toral, Francisco de. Bishop of 
Yucatan, Avil^s asks him 
for missionaries, 274; assists 
Father Rogel at San Antonio, 

339 
Tordesillas, treaty of, 17 



498 



Index 



Tortugas, 228 
Tours, 114, 299 
Toxaway, 295 

Trades represented in Avil^s's 
first Florida expedition, 142, 

147 

Treasure fleet, foreign know- 
ledge of its sailing, 8; ex- 
posed to piracy, 9 ; measures 
taken to protect, 11, 12; 
course taken by, 12; French 
expeditions to plunder the, 
1 01; French occupation of 
Florida a menace to the, 103- 
105; sailing delayed through 
fear of French, 322; value of 
treasure carried by, 388 

Trinity, the, 96, 100, 155, 156, 
164, 195, 214, 215 

Troyes, peace of, 44 

Troiit, the, 96 

Trout Creek, 408 

Tucururu, 59 

Turk, Florida sold to the, 109; 
moving on Malta, 146 

Turks, 303 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 296 

Tybee Roads, 401 



U 



Union, the, 96 

Urdaneta, Andres de, informs 
Avil^s of Northwest passage, 

259. 463 
Urriparacusi, 62 
Uscamacu, 444 
Ushery, 447 
Usi, 447 
Usta, 47 
Utina, provincia de, 448 



Vaez, Brother Domingo, see 
Brother Domingo Augustin, 

341 
Valdes, Diego Flores de, accom- 
panies Avil^s's first Florida 
expedition, 146; at first 
Matanzas massacre, 190; fer- 
ries over the French prisoners, 
198; leaves for Spain, 213; 
informs Court of destruction 
of French in Florida, 300; his 



story about Jean Ribaut, 305; 
to follow Avil^s to Florida, 

371 

Valdez, Pedro Men^ndez de, ac- 
companies Avil^s's first Flor- 
ida expedition, 148; prior 
service, 149; attack on Fort 
Caroline, 172 

Valencia, 269 

Bishop of, 307 

University of, 267, 270 

Valladolid, 130, 133, 342 

Vallemande, 424, 425 

Vasalenque, Antonio Garcia, his 
account of Jean Ribaut's sur- 
render and death, 428, 429 

Vasseur ascends St. John's River 
75; visits Audusta, 84; at 
Fort Caroline, 201 

Vaucelles, truce of, 23, 128 

Velasco, Diego de, married to 
Maria Men^ndez de Avil^s, 

384 

Doctor B., 131 

Juan Lopez de, his ac- 
count of the Caloosas, 230; of 
the Tegestas, 260; his Geo- 
grafia y Descripcion Universal 
ae las Indias, 381 

Luis de, Viceroy of New 



Spain, directed to report on 
fitness of Santa Elena for set- 
tlement, 49; and the Indian, 
Don Luis, 259 

Luis de, the Virginia In- 



dian, his history, 259, 458; 
in Spain, 360; accompanies 
the Jesuit mission to Axacan, 
and betrays it, 360, 361, 363, 
364; with Avil^s at Havana, 

463 
Vendome (Antoine de Bourbon), 

assists Ribaut's first Florida 

expedition, 31 
Venezuela, negro population of, 

Vera Cruz negro population of, 

^4 

Verrazano, Giovanni da, cap- 
tures treasures of Cortes, 9; 
his expedition, 19; French 
claim founded on his discover- 
ies, 118 

Verrazano 's sea, 410 

Vetachuco, 291 



Index 



499 



Victoria, the, 147 

Villafane, Angel de, 403 ; con- 
sulted on fitness of Florida 
for colony, 49; at region 
settled by the French, 107; 
near the Chesapeake, 260 

Villareal, Brother Francisco de, 
sent to Florida, 266 ; sails with 
Father Martinez, 270; sepa- 
rated by a storm, 270 ; reaches 
Havana, 273; Avil^s's search 
for him, 273; accompanies 
Avil^s to San Antonio, 277; 
studies the Tegesta language, 
281; remains there, 282; suc- 
cess of his labours, 340; In- 
dians destroy his crosses, 343 ; 
sent to San Antonio, 345; 
sent to Guale, 347 

Villarroel, Gonzalo de, at San 
Mateo, 180; and the mutin- 
eers, 241, 242; leaves with 
Avil^s, 252; in charge at San 
Mateo, 257; accompanies 
Avil^s to St. Augustine, 262 ; 
imprisons captured Indians at 
San Mateo, 282 

Villegaignon, Nicolas Durand, 
Chevalier de, reported to have 
seized a Spanish port in the 
West Indies, on his Brazil 
expedition, 23; sent by Col- 
igny, 29 

Villimar, College of, 342 

Virginia, 361, 459, 460; Jesuit 
mission to, 360-366 

Bay of, 460 

Visitador of the Casa de Con- 
tratacion, his duty, 11 

Vivero, 290 

Vlina, 414 

Vtina, 414 

W 

Wales, South, 185 

Ware, Lake, 411 

Wassaw Sound, 401 

Wateree, 276, 447 

Waxhaw, 447 

West India treasure fleet, see 
Treasure fleet 

West Indies, commercial rela- 
tions with Spain, 4; with 
Honduras and Tierra Firme 



I o ; gold and silver export ,15; 
supply of maps of, to foreign- 
ers prohibited, 7 ; maps of, 
and descriptive books sup- 
pressed, 7 ; records of dis- 
coveries in, 7 ; first official 
map published, 7 ; exclusion 
of foreigners from, 8; Portu- 
guese bribe Spanish pilots to 
show the way to, 8; secretly 
visited by French pilots, 8; 
Bahama Channel, the path- 
way of its commerce, 12; 
negro population of, and its 
danger, 14-15; French aggres- 
sion in, measures taken to 
prevent 18-23; Spanish se- 
cret agents spy out French 
designs on, 20, 23; Spain's 
ambassador reports French 
designs on, 22, 23; French 
pirates in, 22; omission of 
reference to, in treaty of 
Cateau-Cambr^sis, 24; French 
prohibition respecting naviga- 
tion of, 25 ; French licences to 
visit, 25; Chantone's protest 
against French aggression in, 
and reply thereto, 25; vessels 
equipped in Normandy and 
Brittany to plunder, 25, 26; 
French occupation of Florida 
a menace to the, 103-105, 
108; Aviles's first voyage to, 
127; second voyage to, 133; 
third voyage to, 134; his com- 
merce with, 144, 145; his 
reinforcements from, 146; 
fourth voyage to, 149; first 
Jesuit mission to, 266; Avilds 
to command fleet to protect 
navigation of, 292; Coligny's 
designs upon the, 306 ; im- 
portance of Florida for the 
navigation of the, 320; 
Gourgues in the, 326; Aviles's 
fifth voyage to, 370; Monar- 
des's treatise on the medicinal 
plants of the, 379 

fleet of the, 122, 



123; its captain-general, 123- 

126 
Worth, Lake, 435 
Writing paper, scarcity of, at St. 

Augustine, 294 



50O 



Index 



X 



Xacan, 459-461 

Xatamahane, 461 

Xatillon, Cardinal, reported to 

be interested in Laudonni^re 's 

expedition, 52 
Xerez de la Frontera, 364 
Xuala, 446 

Y 

Yaguana, 92, 179, 224 
Yanahume, 46 
Ylacco, 393 
York River, 464 



Ysa, 275, 445-447 
Ys, Rio de, 432 
Yucatan, 239, 244 
Yuchees, 445 



Zacatecas, 295 

mines of, 213 

Zarza, Holy Cross of, 292 
Zaval, Vasco, hostage at Guale, 
247; in charge at San Mateo, 
252; trouble with Agviirre, 
256 
Zuara, 448 



A Selection from the 
Catalogue of 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



Complete Catalogues sent 
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The Spanish Settlements 

within the Present Limits 

of the United States 

1513=1561 

By 
WOODBURV UOWBRV 

Crown octavo, with maps. Net, $2.50 
(By mail, $2.75) 



Mr. Lowery does not attempt to give a complete history 
of the Spanish settlements within the present territory of 
the United States, but limits his narrative to the work of 
the pioneers who, using Mexico, Cuba, and Porto Rico as 
bases, penetrated to the country lying north and west. It 
is a most interesting record. On the one hand there is 
presented the selfish lust for gold, and on the other hand 
the unselfish devotion of the friars in their efforts to con- 
vert the natives. While the reader can but condemn many 
of the acts of the soldiery, he cannot help being impressed 
by their bravery and fortitude under hardship. But the 
bravery of the unarmed friars calls for still greater admira- 
tion, and in his chapter on Missions the author pays them 
a well-deserved tribute. 



Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
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The United States 

1607-1904 

A History of Three Centuries of Progress 

in Population, Politics, Industry, 

Commerce, and Civilization 

By WILLIAM ESTABROOK CHANCELLOR 
and FLETCHER WILLIS HEWES 

In ten parts, each in one octavo volume, handsomely printed in 
pica type. Fully illustrated, each, net, $3.50 (carriage 25 cents). 
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Some comments coacerning the volumes now ready 1 

"The initial volume establishes a high standard of excellence. The 
authors have evolved a plan which will secure for their work a unique 
position in the long series of American histories. Both men are admirably 
fitted for their respective tasks. . . The volume at hand treats in a 

most thorough manner the subject of the colonization of the North 
American continent. . . . Mr. Chancellor has accomplished with 
striking success the difficult task of putting fresh life into a tale that has 
been told over and over again. His language is terse and vigorous, and he 
has a dramatic way of presenting events which animate even the dullest, 
most prosaic facts. His characterizations are brief, but illuminating. The 
statistical work of Mr. Hewes constitutes a most distinctive contribution 
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constitmte an invaluable feature of the work." — Newark News, 

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THE TRAIL OF LEWIS AND CLARK 

A Story of the Great Exploration Across the Continent, 1804- 
06 ; with a Description of the Old Trail, Based upon 
Actual Travel over it, and of the Changes Found a Century 
Later. By Olin D Wheeler, member of the Minne- 
sota Historical Society, author of "6000 Miles through 
Wonderland," etc. 

a Tols. 8°. With colored frontispieces, and about 300 illostra' 
tions, including Maps and Diagrams. Net, $6.00. (Carriage, 40c.) 

This work is not a mere re-hash of the famous Journal of Lewis and 
Clark. While the great epic story of this exploration is given, the work 
contains also a description of the Trail at the present time, and thus are 
presented, both by pen and by picture, the strong contrasts between the 
country as seen by the intrepid explorers and the scenes which meet the 
eye of the traveller of to-day, journeying in safety and comfort. No other 
work emphasizes the importance of the Louisiana Purchase as fully as does 
this record of journeys made a century apart. 



BREAKING THE WILDERNESS 

The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, from the Wan- 
derings of Cabeza de Vaca, to the First Descent of the 
Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the Union 
Pacific Railway. With Particular Account of the Ex- 
ploits of Trappers and Traders. By Frederick S. 
Dellenbaugh, author of " The Romance of the Colo- 
rado River," " North Americans of Yesterday," etc. 

8°. Fully illustrated. Net, $3.50. 

Two events occurred in 1869 which marked the close of a distinct, event- 
ful, and romantic period in the history of the western half of the United 
States. One of these was the successful descent of the Colorado River by 
Major Powell, eradicating the last portion of unknown wilderness, and the 
other was the driving of the last spike on the Union Pacific Railway, which 
began a new era. The old one, which began with Cabeza de Vaca (1528- 
1536), ended with Powell. 

While there have been numerous books published relating to various 
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sents a comprehensive and concise view of the whole. This place it is in- 
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a large share of its pages is devoted to the time between Lewis and Clark's 
expedition and that of Fremont nevertheless the text as a whole sketches 
the entire ground. As the author personally took part with Major Powell 
in his second voyage of exploration down the Colorado he is enabled to 
approach his subject with a considerable degree of knowledge and insight 
gained from actual experience. 



New York — Q. P. Putnam's 5ons — London 



DE.C 



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